Rescue workers tackle a blaze at a factory in Kharkiv after a Russian drone strike, 2 February 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / SERGEY KOZLOV
At least six were killed and dozens more were injured when a Russian aerial bomb struck a boarding school in the Ukrainian-occupied city of Sudzha in Russia’s western Kursk region on Saturday evening, according to to Kursk activist Vladimir Sinelnikov.
The boarding school was being used to shelter civilians awaiting evacuation from the embattled Kursk region, many of whom were elderly and unwell, according Sinelnikov, who first reported the news of the deadly strike.
“Russian aviation used a guided aerial bomb to strike a boarding school in the Kursk region town of Sudzha. The strike was carried out on purpose,’ the AFU said in a statement, adding that of the 88 people pulled from the rubble, four were in a severe condition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of using the same savage methods against its own citizens as those it employed in its foreign wars. “They destroyed the building even though dozens of civilians were there. This is how Russia waged war against Chechnya decades ago. They killed Syrians the same way. Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes the same way.”
“This is a state devoid of civility. And this is an evil that will not stop on its own. But if we act strongly and decisively, even Russia can be forced to stop. And this must be done to ensure the world is safe from Russian bombs,” Zelensky wrote on X on Saturday evening.
However, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed later on Saturday that the boarding school attack had been carried out by the AFU using missiles launched from northern Ukraine’s Sumy region, which it claimed had been detected by Russian air defence systems.
According to the Russian side, the “AFU provocation in Sudzha” was intended to divert attention from the alleged killing of Russian civilians by Ukrainian forces occupying the Kurk region village of Russkoe Porechnoye, news of which broke over two weeks ago.
Colonel Rostislav Karpusha
Alexander Khinshtein, the acting governor of the Kursk region, said late on Saturday that there was still “no reliable information about the number of casualties” in the Sudzha attack, though by Sunday morning, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced that a criminal case had been opened against an AFU officer for ordering the attack.
Colonel Rostislav Karpusha, the commander of the AFU’s 19th missile brigade, was named as the chief suspect in what the Russian authorities are calling the Sudzha terror attack, and stands accused of ordering his subordinates to launch a missile strike on the boarding school.
