Ukraine: Russian drone strike on Kyiv high school kills three

Russian drone strike on Kyiv high school kills three in Putin’s latest barrage of missile attacks against Ukraine’s civilians

• The strike hit a high school about 50 miles south of Kyiv, officials said today
• President Zelensky said Russia launched several strikes across Ukraine 

Three people were killed and seven wounded in a Russian drone attack that hit a high school in the Kyiv region overnight, authorities said Wednesday.

The State Emergency Service said on the Telegram messaging app that two dormitories and an educational facility in the city of Rzhyshchiv had been partially destroyed in the attack.

‘Three people died, two people were injured and one person was rescued. Four people are probably under the rubble,’ the state emergency service said. The military administration of the Kyiv confirmed the numbers.

The strike hit a high school about 50 miles south of Kyiv, said the emergency services, which published images of heavily damaged buildings.

The attack ‘partially destroyed’ two floors of two student residences and a building that is used for studying, the same source said.

Three people were killed and seven wounded in a Russian drone attack that hit a high school in the Kyiv region overnight, authorities said Wednesday. Pictured: A heavily damaged building is seen in the town of Rzhyshchiv on Wednesday after the deadly attack

The strike hit a high school about 50 miles south of Kyiv, said the emergency services, which published images of heavily damaged buildings

Rescuers work at a site of building heavily damaged by a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Rzhyshchiv, in Kyiv region, Ukraine March 22

A fire affecting more than 3,200 square feet of the school was extinguished shortly before 7am local time, according to the emergency services.

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Russia regularly pounds Ukraine with indiscriminate missiles, artillery and drones. Moscow insists it is only attacking military targets, but thousands of civilians have been killed in strikes since the war broke out last year.

The strikes also often cause power cuts that prevent people from warming their homes or getting drinking water.

‘Over 20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling incidents, and that’s just in one last night of Russian terror against Ukraine,’ President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter.

Suggesting Russia did not want peace in Ukraine after almost 13 months of war, he said: ‘Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes.’

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 16 out of 21 drones launched at Ukraine overnight by Russia. Russia did not immediately comment on the reports.

Meanwhile, the Russian navy ‘repelled’ a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea, the Kremlin-backed governor of the city said.

The peninsula, seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, is home to Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet and has been hit by a series of drone attacks since the Kremlin’s offensive.

The attack came just four days after President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Sevastopol, and the day after Ukraine said a shipment of Russian cruise missiles had been destroyed in the town of Dzhankoi, in the north of the peninsular.

‘In total, three objects have been destroyed,’ the Russian-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram. He said military personnel had shot at the drones with ‘small arms’ and that ‘air defence was also working’.

Razvozhayev added there were no casualties and claimed no ships had been damaged, but said that the explosions blew out windows in nearby buildings.

These included the Moscow House cultural centre, a well known building that is beyond the port.

But Razvozhayev downplayed the attack, saying the navy ‘confidently and calmly’ repelled it. He urged calm saying the ‘situation was under control’.

In a later post, he dismissed reports that people were leaving Crimea, saying it was a ‘lie’ spread by Kyiv. ‘Information is spreading about evacuations from the peninsula by ferry crossings and other such nonsense,’ he said.

Smoke billows from a building heavily damaged by a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Rzhyshchiv, in Kyiv region, Ukraine March 22

Rescuers work at a site of building heavily damaged by a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Rzhyshchiv, in Kyiv region, Ukraine March 22

Since Ukraine gained long-range missile capabilities through weapon supplies delivered by the West, it has stepped up its attacks on targets in Crimea. 

Last August, missiles destroyed several planes at an air base on the peninsula’s south west coast and Ukrainian authorities later claimed responsibility for the attack.

And on October 8, an explosion badly damaged a stretch of the Crimean/Kerch Bridge, a huge bridge built by Russia to connect Crimea to its mainland. 

Also in October, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was hit by a major drone attack that the Kremlin blamed on Ukraine.

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