Bilohorivka school bombing | |
---|---|
Part of the battle of Donbas (2022) | |
Location | Bilohorivka, Ukraine |
Coordinates | 48°55′39″N38°14′46″E / 48.92750°N 38.24611°E |
Date | 7 May 2022 |
Deaths | 2 (confirmed) 60 (claim) |
Perpetrators | Russia |
On 7 May 2022, a school in Bilohorivka, Luhansk Oblast, was bombed by Russian forces during the Battle of Sievierodonetsk [1] in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The death of at least two people was confirmed while authorities said the actual death toll was close to 60. [2]
About ninety people were sheltering inside the building's basement at the time, [3] which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was the majority of the village's population at that time. [1] The building was hit by a Russian airstrike, setting the building on fire and trapping large numbers of people inside. [4]
At least 30 people were rescued. [5] Two people were confirmed to have been killed, but Governor of Luhansk Oblast Serhiy Haidai said that the 60 remaining people were believed to have been killed. [6] [7] [ needs update ]
The attack was condemned by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, [3] and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who said he was "appalled" by the attack. [8] [9]
Liz Truss, the British foreign secretary, said that she was "horrified" and described the attack as constituting war crimes. [10]
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On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which started in 2014. The invasion, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of 2024, Russian troops are occupying about 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
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The battle of Sievierodonetsk was a military engagement in the wider battle of Donbas of the eastern Ukraine campaign during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bilohorivka is a rural settlement in Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is located in Lysychansk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It is located approximately 88 kilometres (55 mi) northwest from the centre of Luhansk and 25 kilometres (16 mi) west-south-west from Sievierodonetsk. The population is 0
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