60 dead after school bombed in east Ukraine, says Zelensky

60 dead after school bombed in east Ukraine, says Zelensky

Sixty civilians died in the bombing of a school in eastern Ukraine’s Lugansk region this weekend, President Volodymyr Zelensky said today.

“Just yesterday in the village of Bilogorivka, Lugansk region, a Russian bomb killed 60 people. Civilians,” Mr Zelensky said during an address to the G7 summit by video conference.

“They were hiding from shelling in the building of a regular school, which was attacked by a Russian air strike,” said Mr Zelensky.

Rescuers were also looking for survivors in the neighbouring village of Shepilivka after a strike hit a house where 11 people were sheltering in the basement.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by the bombing of the school and called for civilians to be spared, his spokesperson said.

“The Secretary-General is appalled by the reported attack on 7 May which hit a school in Bilohorivka, Ukraine, where many people were apparently seeking shelter from the ongoing fighting,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Mr Guterres “reiterates that civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be spared in times of war,” and noted that the attack was “yet another reminder that in this war, as in so many other conflicts, it is civilians that pay the highest price”.

Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of targeting civilians in the war, which Moscow denies.

The Russians were continuing their intensive shelling of the Azovstal steelworks, last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the ruined southeastern port city of Mariupol, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment said today.

“We will continue to fight as long as we are alive to repel the Russian occupiers,” Captain Sviatoslav Palamar told an online news conference, pleading with the international community to help evacuate wounded soldiers from the plant.

Eight buses carrying 174 Mariupol civilians, including 40 evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks, arrived in Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia today, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The 40 were evacuated yesterday from the steel plant, where the last Ukrainian soldiers in the city are holed up and surrounded by Russian troops.

Evacuees, some with young children, left white buses that had transported them to a shopping centre car park in Zaporizhzhia, a city in southern Ukraine that has become a hub for those fleeing Russian-occupied areas.

More than 600 people have now been evacuated from Mariupol through safe passages but “scores” could not join the convoys in recent days, Osnat Lubrani, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, said in a statement.

“We will continue our engagement with both parties to the conflict to make sure that those who want to leave have the guarantees to do so safely and in the direction of their choice,” she added.

In an emotional address for Victory Day, when Europe commemorates the formal surrender of Germany to the Allies in World War II, Mr Zelensky said that evil had returned to Ukraine with the Russian invasion, but his country would prevail.

Canadian PM Trudeau condemns ‘war crimes’

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was responsible for “war crimes,” during a visit to Ukraine where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“It is clear that Vladimir Putin is responsible for heinous war crimes,” Mr Trudeau said at a news conference with the Ukrainian leader.

He added that “there must be accountability” and that he had “witnessed firsthand the brutality of Russia’s illegal war”.

The Canadian leader announced new weapons and equipment for Ukraine after an unannounced visit to Kyiv, the capital.

Mr Trudeau also said Canada was imposing new sanctions on Russian individuals and entities in connection with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Canada, he said, was reopening its embassy in Kyiv.

Earlier in the day, Mr Trudeau visited Irpin outside Kyiv, a city devastated by fierce fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces before its occupation in March by Moscow, the city’s mayor said.

“I witnessed first-hand the brutality of Russia’s illegal war,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, US First Lady Jill Biden made an unannounced trip to Ukraine to show support for its people amid Russia’s invasion, visiting a school that is serving as a temporary shelter and meeting Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska.

“I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Ms Biden said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the invasion he launched on 24 February a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an unprovoked war.

Mariupol is key to Moscow’s efforts to link the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014, and parts of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk that have been controlled by Russia-backed separatists since then.

Mr Putin sent Victory Day messages to separatist leaders in Luhansk and Donetsk, saying Russia was fighting shoulder to shoulder with them and likening their joint efforts to the war against Nazi Germany.

“Victory will be ours,” Mr Putin said, according to a Kremlin press release.

It comes as the G7 group of rich nations is “committed to phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil,” the White House said today, escalating pressure on Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.

“This will hit hard at the main artery of Putin’s economy and deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war,” the Biden administration said in a statement.

Tomorrow, President Putin will preside over a parade in Moscow’s Red Square of troops, tanks, rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles, making a speech that could offer clues on the future of the war.

Russia’s efforts have been stymied by logistical and equipment problems and high casualties in the face of fierce resistance.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its forces had destroyed a Ukrainian navy ship near Odesa with a missile strike overnight, and had destroyed four Ukrainian warplanes, four helicopters and an assault boat in the past 24 hours.

Ukraine said its forces had repulsed nine Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk, destroying 19 tanks and 20 combat vehicles.

The Luhansk governor said Ukrainian forces had retreated from the city of Popasna, which has been the focus of intense fighting.

“Everything was destroyed there. Our troops retreated to more fortified positions,” he told Ukrainian television.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, said earlier his soldiers had taken control of most of Popasna.

Reuters could not independently verify the claims made by any of the parties to the fighting.