Reuters, Ukraine
Sun May 8, 2022 04:31 PM Last update on: Sun May 8, 202204:33 PM
Asmany as 60 people were feared to have been killed in the Russian bombing of avillage school in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, the regionalgovernor said on Sunday.
GovernorSerhiy Gaidai said Russian forces dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on theschool in Bilohorivka where about 90 people were sheltering, causing a firethat engulfed the building.
"Thefire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared,and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found," Gaidai wrote onthe Telegram messaging app.
"Thirtypeople were evacuated from the rubble, seven of whom were injured. Sixty peoplewere likely to have died under the rubble of buildings."
Reuterscould not immediately verify the report.
Ukraineand its Western allies have accused Russian forces of targeting civilians inthe war, which Moscow denies.
Inthe ruined southeastern port city of Mariupol, scores of civilians have beenevacuated from a sprawling steel plant in a week-long operation brokered by theUnited Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address late on Saturday that morethan 300 civilians had been rescued from the Azovstal steelworks and authoritieswould now focus on trying to evacuate the wounded and medics. Other Ukrainiansources have cited different figures.
TheAzovstal plant is a last hold-out for Ukrainian forces in a city now largelycontrolled by Russia, and many civilians had also taken refuges in itsunderground shelters. It has become a symbol of resistance to the Russianeffort to capture swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Russian-backedseparatists said on Sunday a total of 182 civilians evacuated from the planthad arrived at a temporary accommodation point in Bezimenne, in the area theycontrol. Those who wished to go to areas controlled by Ukraine were handed overto U.N. and ICRC representatives, they said.
Inthe Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 230 km (140 miles)northwest of Mariupol, dozens of people who had fled the port city and nearbyoccupied areas on their own or with the help of volunteers waited to beregistered in a car park set up to welcome evacuees.
"There'slots of people still in Mariupol, who want to leave but can't," saidhistory teacher Viktoria Andreyeva, 46, who said she had only just reachedZaporizhzhia after leaving her bombed home in Mariupol with her family inmid-April.
"Theair feels different here, free," she said in a tent where volunteersoffered food, basic supplies and toys to the new arrivals, many of whom weretraveling with small children.
Inan emotional address on Sunday for Victory Day, when Europe commemorates theformal surrender of Germany to the Allies in World War Two, Zelenskiy said thatevil had returned to Ukraine with the Russian invasion, but his country wouldprevail.
RussianPresident Vladimir Putin calls the invasion he launched on Feb. 24 a"special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and rid it ofanti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and its allies sayRussia launched an unprovoked war.
Mariupolis key to Moscow's efforts to link the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in2014, and parts of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk that have beencontrolled by Russia-backed separatists since that same year.
Putinsent Victory Day messages to separatist leaders in Luhansk and Donetsk, sayingRussia was fighting shoulder to shoulder with them and likening their jointefforts to the war against Nazi Germany. "Victory will be ours,"Putin said, according to a Kremlin press release on Sunday.
U.S.President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders were to hold a video call withZelenskiy on Sunday in a show of unity ahead of Russia's Victory Daycelebrations on Monday.
UnderliningWestern support for Ukraine, Britain pledged to provide a further 1.3 billionpounds ($1.6 billion) in military support and aid, double its previous spendingcommitments.
Putinwill preside on Monday over a parade in Moscow's Red Square of troops, tanks,rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles, making a speech that couldoffer clues on the future of the war. Russia's efforts have been stymied bylogistical and equipment problems and high casualties in the face of fierce resistance.
U.S.Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said on Saturday that Putinwas convinced "doubling down" on the conflict would improve theoutcome for Russia.
"He'sin a frame of mind in which he doesn't believe he can afford to lose," Burnstold a Financial Times event in Washington on Saturday.
Russia'sDefence Ministry said on Sunday its forces had destroyed a Ukrainian navy shipnear Odesa with a missile strike overnight, and had destroyed four Ukrainianwarplanes, four helicopters and an assault boat in the past 24 hours.
Ukrainesaid its forces had repulsed nine Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk,destroying 19 tanks and 20 combat vehicles.
TheLuhansk governor said Ukrainian forces had retreated from the city of Popasna,which has been the focus of intense fighting. "Everything was destroyedthere. Our troops retreated to more fortified positions," he toldUkrainian television.
RamzanKadyrov, the head of Russia's republic of Chechnya, said earlier his soldiershad taken control of most of Popasna.
Reuterscould not independently verify the claims made by any of the parties to thefighting.