There are fears that 60 people have been killed after a rural school in eastern Ukraine received a direct hit in a Russian airstrike, and rescue efforts, the district governor said, were impossible due to constant shelling.
Russian attacks in the east and south intensified over the weekend ahead of Monday’s symbolic Victory Day celebrations, with the Black Sea city of Odessa under repeated missile strikes and other Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol. which says they have been “abandoned” by the government while Russian attacks continue
About 90 people used the school in Bilokhorivka, a village 60 miles (97 km) northwest of the Russian-controlled city of Luhansk, as a refuge after the club’s former asylum site was destroyed in an earlier attack.
Luhansk Governor Sergei Gaidai told the Guardian that he believed the 30 people who fled were outside the building. He said there was little hope for those under the rubble.
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“Unfortunately, they are probably dead,” he said. “Because the building collapsed. Besides, the air bomb is not a rocket, its explosion produces extremely high temperatures. That’s probably why people didn’t survive. “
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he intends to take over the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions by May 9, when Russia marks the Day of Victory and Defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
In a speech marking Ukraine’s Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, May 8, Vladimir Zelensky said his country pays tribute to all those who helped Adolf Hitler’s victory, but accused Russia of repeating his crimes.
He said: “Every year on May 8, together with the entire civilized world, we honor all those who defended the planet from Nazism during World War II. Millions of lives lost, mutilated destinies, tortured souls and millions of reasons to say evil: never again!
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“We knew the price our ancestors paid for this wisdom. We knew how important it was to keep it and pass it on to posterity. But we had no idea that our generation would witness the desecration of words that, as it turned out, were not true for everyone.
“This year we say ‘Never again’ in a different way. We hear “Never Again” in a different way. Sounds painful, cruel. Not surprisingly, but with a question mark. You say: never again? Tell Ukraine about it. “
Zelenski continued: “On February 24, the word ‘never’ was deleted. Shot and bombed. From hundreds of rockets at 4 o’clock in the morning that woke up all of Ukraine. We heard terrible explosions. We heard: again! ”
Ilya Samoilenko, a lieutenant in the Azov Regiment in Mariupol, said his comrades-in-arms would be executed if captured by the Russians and that the surrender would be a “gift” to the enemy. “We are witnessing Russian crimes,” he said. “Surrender is not an option because Russia is not interested in our lives.
Gaidai said the attack on the school in Belohorivka took place at 6pm on Saturday night and was followed by constant shelling in the area, making rescue attempts impossible.
He said a bus had been sent to the village, which has a population of 800 to 900, to evacuate the rest on Sunday morning, but had to turn around due to the intensity of the shelling on the roads.
Gaidai said: “Right now they are begging us, begging us to get them out, but we can’t, because now everything is under fire. About 70 people wanted to be evacuated today. We sent a bus, but it turned and came back. Not only the village, but also the highway is under fire. “
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Gaidai said he had been disappointed in recent weeks that residents had repeatedly refused to leave, despite growing dangers to their lives as Russia focused its attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine.
Earlier on Saturday, eight miles (13km) north of the school, two children were killed and two other children and an elderly woman were injured when a rocket hit the village of Privole, Gaidai said.
He said: “About a week ago we tried to evacuate about 300 people from Belohorivka. We have already arranged this and sent several buses. But most of them refused to go. So we managed to evacuate only 60-70 people. “
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor has said that as of May 8, 225 Ukrainian children have died since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
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