The war in Ukraine: Russia attacks a school and fears there are dozens of dead Ukrainians

Dozens of Ukrainians are feared dead in Lugansk on Sunday after a Russian bomb dropped a school where about 90 people were in the basement, while Ukrainian troops refused to surrender to a besieged steel plant in the strategic port of Mariupol.

The governor of Lugansk province, one of the two areas that make up the eastern industrial center known as the Donbas, said the school in the town of Bilohorivka burned down after the lawsuit on Saturday. Emergency teams found two bodies and rescued 30 people.

“It’s likely that the 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead.”Governor Serhiy Haidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. The Russian attack also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said.

The biggest conflict in Europe since World War II turned into a brutal war of attrition due to the unexpectedly effective defense of the Ukrainian army. Since failing to capture the Ukrainian capital kyiv, Russian forces have attacked cities, towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, but have gained little ground, according to Western military analysts.

The attacks

To show victory in time for Victory Day which is commemorated every Monday in Europe, the Russian army sought to complete the capture of Mariupolwhich has been under relentless attack since the war began on February 24. The huge seaside steel plant where approximately 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are the only part of the city not under Russian control.

All women, children and elderly civilians who hid with the fighters at the Azovstal plant they are done evacuating Saturday. The troops still inside refused to surrender; hundreds are believed to have been injured.

After rescuers evacuated the last civilians, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said in his daily video address on Saturday night that work would continue on Sunday. to secure humanitarian corridors to evacuate residents of Mariupol and nearby cities.

The Ukrainian government has contacted international organizations to try to ensure the safe passage of fighters staying in underground tunnels and bunkers of steelworks.

Prime Minister of CanadaJustin Trudeau visits Ukraine.

Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne and Irpin mayor Olexander Markushyn announced Trudeau’s visit to Irpin. Markushyn posted photos of Trudeau on social media and said the Canadian leader he was shocked at the damage he saw to civilian homes.

Trudeau is the latest Western leader to visit Ukraine to offer his support to the country.

His office later confirmed the visit, saying in a statement that “the prime minister is in Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky and reaffirm Canada’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people.”

while, the first lady of the United States, Jill Bidenvisited western Ukraine and met the first lady Olena Zelenska at a school.

including the G7

The Ukrainian leader will hold online talks on Sunday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and leaders of other Group of Seven countries. the virtual conference it was intended in part to show solidarity with the Western Allies on Victory Day, which marked the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Meanwhile, Western military analysts said the Ukrainian counteroffensive was advancing around the country’s second -largest city, Kharkov, even though it remained an important target of artillery fire from Russian forces.

The Ukrainian Army said that retreating Russian forces three bridges were damaged on a road northeast of the city to try to prevent the advance of the Ukrainian.

Ukrainian authorities have warned that the attacks will intensify as Monday’s anniversary approaches as Russia celebrates Victory Day as it approaches. President Zelensky urged Ukrainians to be alert to alarms wind attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin is believed to want to announce some sort of victory in Ukraine when he faces troops in Red Square on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that Zelenskyy and his men “include the spirit of the victors of World War II ”.

Blinken accuses President Putin of being tried “twist history in an attempt to justify their unreasonable and brutal war against Urania ”.

“While the war is in Europe again, we must increase our determination to fight the people now they seek to manipulate historical memory to advance their own ambitions, ” Blinken said in a statement as the United States and Britain commemorated the Allied victory in Europe.

The fiercest fighting in recent days has taken place in eastern Ukraine, where both sides are trapped in a fierce battle to capture or reclaim territory. The Moscow offensive focused on the area in the Donbas industrial region, dwhere Russia -backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.

Moscow has also tried to destroy southern Ukraine, both to cut the country off the sea and connect its territory to Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region, long home to Russian troops, but struggles to achieve those goals.

On Saturday, six Russian aircraft-launched cruise missiles fell in the Odessa region, where authorities enforced the curfew until Tuesday morning. In videos posted on social media, a thick curtain of black smoke can be seen covering Odessa as sirens sound in the background.

The Odessa city council said four of the missiles hit a furniture company and the shock waves, as well as debris turned into shrapnel, caused severe damage to high -rise apartment buildings. The other two missiles hit Odessa airport, where the runway was damaged in an earlier Russian strike.

Air raid sirens sounded several times in the early hours of Sunday, the city council said.

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press show Ukraine’s attack on Russia-controlled Snake Island in an attempt to thwart Russia’s efforts to control the Black Sea. Satellite images taken Saturday morning by Planet Labs PBC show that most of the buildings on the island are already there destroyed by Ukrainian drone strike, as well as what appears to be a Serna-class landing craft on the island’s northern beach.

AP Agency

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