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After the attack on Russian security services claimed in the Kherson region, Kiev’s forces once again struck the part of a region occupied by Moscow’s troops, that of Lugansk. But this time, Vladimir Putin accused, a dormitory that housed dozens of teenage students was hit, with a very heavy toll: at least 6 dead, 39 injured and 15 still missing, according to the head of the Kremlin.
Kiev’s version: «A Russian military command hit»
The version of the Kiev general staff is different, claiming that it hit a command center of a Russian military unit and not civilians.
The attack reported by the Russians occurred a few hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported the bombing of the headquarters of Moscow’s internal intelligence services (FSB) in Kherson, in which “a hundred” enemies were killed or injured. On Thursday evening, according to the Russian authorities, the Ukrainian drones instead fell on the student dormitory of the State Pedagogy College in Starobilsk, Lugansk.
Putin: «A terrorist attack in three waves»
“The attack was not accidental, it happened in three waves, with 16 drones, all hitting the same site,” Putin said. For the head of the Kremlin, therefore, it was a “terrorist attack” perpetrated by the “neo-Nazi regime that took power in Kiev”. And the reason, he added, is “the continuous failure at the front”, where the situation for the Ukrainian forces “is gradually transforming from difficult and critical to catastrophic”.
The Ukrainian military commands respond by stating that a “headquarters” of Russian forces was hit in Starobilsk. “Ukraine carries out attacks against military infrastructure and installations used for military purposes, scrupulously respecting the rules of international humanitarian law,” the General Staff states in a message published on social media.
Moscow prepares retaliation and accuses NATO
What is certain is that the new tragedy reported by Moscow and Putin’s accusations will not favor a resumption of negotiations with Kiev, after which, in recent days, the Kremlin had said to wait for the visit to Moscow of the American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for the “next few weeks” after a pause due to the conflict in the Persian Gulf.
Putin said he had already ordered the Defense Ministry to prepare retaliation. And the Foreign Ministry said Kiev and “its Western handlers” bear “full responsibility for escalating hostilities and undermining political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.” Russian diplomacy, in fact, accuses NATO countries of complicity in the attack, for the supply of “long-range weapons” to Kiev and for the fact that the raids in which they are used were carried out “with the technical assistance of foreign specialists from well-known allied countries”.