Dozens feared dead after Moscow bomb levels Ukraine school
Zaporizhzhia, May 08: Dozens of Ukrainians were feared dead on Sunday after a Russian bomb destroyed a school sheltering about 90 people in the basement as Moscow's invading forces kept up their barrage of cities, towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The governor of Luhansk province, one of two areas that make up the eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas, said the school in the village of Bilohorivka caught fire after Saturday's bombing.
Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, he said.
"Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead," Gov. Serhiy Haidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Russian shelling also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said.
Since failing to capture Ukraine's capital, Russia has focused its offensive in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014 and occupy some territory. The largest European conflict since World War II has developed into a punishing war of attrition due to the Ukrainian military's unexpectedly effective defense.
To demonstrate success, the Russian military worked to complete its conquest of the besieged port city of Mariupol, which has been under relentless assault since the start of the war, in time for Victory Day celebrations on Monday. A sprawling seaside steel mill is the only part of the city not under Russian control.
All the remaining women, children and older civilians who had been sheltering with Ukrainian fighters in the Azovstal plant were evacuated Saturday. The troops still inside have refused to surrender; hundreds are believed to be wounded.
After rescuers evacuated the last civilians Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that the focus would turn to extracting the wounded and medics. Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that work would also continue Sunday on securing humanitarian corridors for residents of Mariupol and surrounding towns to leave.
The Ukrainian government has been reaching out to international organizations to try to secure safe passage for the estimated 2,000 fighters remaining in the plant's underground tunnels and bunkers. Zelenskyy acknowledged the difficulty, but said: "We are not losing hope, we are not stopping. Every day we are looking for some diplomatic option that might work."
The Ukrainian leader was expected to hold online talks Sunday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and leaders from other Group of Seven countries.
The meeting is partly meant to display unity among Western allies on Victory in Europe Day, which marks Nazi Germany's 1945 surrender.
Elsewhere
on
Ukraine's
coast,
explosions
echoed
again
Sunday
across
the
major
Black
Sea
port
of
Odesa,
which
Russia
struck
with
six
cruise
missiles
on
Saturday.
Authorities
offered
no
immediate
damage
reports.
The
Odesa
city
council
said
four
of
the
missiles
launched
Saturday
hit
a
furniture
company,
with
the
shock
waves
and
debris
badly
damaging
high-rise
apartment
buildings.
The
other
two
hit
the
Odesa
airport,
where
a
previous
Russian
attack
destroyed
the
runway.
Ukrainian leaders warned that attacks would only worsen in the lead-up to Victory Day, the May 9 holiday when Russia celebrates Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 with military parades. Russian President Vladimir Putin is believed to want to proclaim some kind of triumph in Ukraine when he addresses the troops on Red Square on Monday.
In
neighbouring
Moldova,
Russian
and
separatists
troops
were
on
"full
alert,"
the
Ukrainian
military
warned.
The
region
has
increasingly
become
a
focus
of
worries
that
the
conflict
could
expand
beyond
Ukraine's
borders.
Pro-Russian
forces
broke
off
the
Transnistria
section
of
Moldova
in
1992,
and
Russian
troops
have
been
stationed
there
since,
ostensibly
as
peacekeepers.
Those
forces
are
on
"full
combat
readiness,"
Ukraine
said,
without
giving
details
on
how
it
came
to
the
assessment.
Moscow
has
sought
to
sweep
across
southern
Ukraine
both
to
cut
off
the
country
from
the
Black
Sea
and
to
create
a
corridor
to
Transnistria.
But
it
has
struggled
to
achieve
those
objectives.
In a sign of the dogged resistance that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine's military struck Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war's first days and has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press showed Ukraine targeting Russian-held Snake Island in a bid to impede Russia's efforts to control the sea.
A satellite image taken Sunday morning by Planet Labs PBC showed smoke rising from two sites on the island. On the island's southern edge, a fire smoked next to debris. That corresponded to a video released by the Ukrainian military showing a strike on a Russian helicopter that had flown to the island.
A Planet Labs image from Saturday showed most of the island's buildings, as well as what appeared to be a Serna-class landing craft, destroyed by Ukrainian drone attacks.
The most intense combat in recent days has taken place in eastern Ukraine. A Ukrainian counteroffensive near Kharkiv, a city in the northeast that is the country's second-largest, "is making significant progress and will likely advance to the Russian border in the coming days or weeks," according to the Institute for the Study of War.
The Washington-based think tank added that "the Ukrainian counteroffensive demonstrates promising Ukrainian capabilities."
However, the Ukrainian army withdrew from Luhansk province's embattled city of Popasna, Haidai, the regional governor, said Sunday.
In a video interview posted on his Telegram channel, Haidai said that Kyiv's troops had "moved to stronger positions, which they had prepared ahead of time."
The Russia-backed rebels have established a breakaway region in Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas. Russia has targeted areas still under Ukrainian control.
"All free settlements in the Luhansk region are hot spots," Haidai said. "Right now, there are shooting battles in (the villages) of Bilohorivka, Voivodivka and towards Popasna."