President Volodymyr Zelensky says Moscow has bombed a boarding school in Ukrainian-occupied Russia where civilians were sheltering and preparing to evacuate.
The Ukrainian army said four people were killed and dozens – many of them elderly – were injured in the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, which has been under Ukrainian control for five months.
More than 80 people are reported to have been rescued from the building.
The BBC has not been able to confirm Ukraine’s claim that it was a deliberate Russian attack using a guided aerial bomb. Moscow blamed Ukraine for the bombing.
Zelensky posted on X that the incident exposed Russia as “a state devoid of civility”.
“This is how Russia wages war – Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school with civilians preparing to evacuate,” he wrote.
“A Russian aerial bomb. They destroyed the building even though dozens of civilians were there.”
The Ukrainian army’s general staff posted on Telegram that four people had died and that 84 civilians were rescued, adding that “the strike was carried out on purpose”.
For its part, the Russian defence ministry said Ukraine carried out Saturday’s attack, which it described as a targeted missile strike.
Ukraine launched a lightning thrust into the Russian oblast of Kursk last August, taking Russian border guards by surprise.
The government in Kyiv made it clear at the time that it had no intention of holding on to the territory seized, merely to use it as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations.
Zelensky likened Saturday’s strike to “how Russia waged war against Chechnya decades ago. They killed Syrians the same way. Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes the same way”.
