A Ukrainian official on Saturday said a school in Luhansk region that was serving as a shelter for nearly 100 people in the Bilohorivka village has been bombed by Russia.
Serhiy Haidai, head of Ukraine’s Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said as many as 90 people were hiding from shelling when a Russian plane dropped a powerful bomb, Newsweek reported.
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“Almost the entire village was hiding. Everyone who did not evacuate. After the social club was hit, the basement of the school was the only place of salvation, but the Russians took this chance from people,” he said.
It is reported that around 30 people had been rescued from the rubble.
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The State Emergency Service of Ukraine told the Novosti Donbassa news outlet that two people were found dead, adding the rescue will be suspended until Sunday.
Photographs circulating with media reports show the school reduced to a pile of rubble.
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Fighting has been heavy recently in the area where the school was bombed. Haidai called it a “hot spot,”‘ according to pravda.com. On Friday, two children were killed by shelling in Luhansk region, with an adult and two other children reportedly injured.
The bombing of the school also comes ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, held each year on May 9 to mark the Soviet Union’s 1945 victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
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This year’s event will include a flight by Russia’s IIyshinin II-80 airborne command plane, the aircraft which would carry Russian President Vladimir Putin and others in the event of a nuclear war, according to Reuters.