After the terrible attack on the school, Putin announced retaliation

The Russian president said that in the attack on the school house, 15 people also disappeared. He accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians and said that he asked the Russian Ministry of Defense for options for retaliation.

Photos and videos released by Russian authorities show rescuers carrying a man out of the rubble on a stretcher. It was also possible to see badly damaged buildings, one of which appeared to have partially collapsed, as well as fires that are still burning.

Ukraine is fighting to try to take back Luhansk, one of three regions that Russia unilaterally claimed as its own in 2022, which Kiev sees as an illegal territory grab.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, said 86 teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 were sleeping in a dormitory belonging to the school of the Luhansk Pedagogical University when Ukrainian drones attacked overnight.

Leonid Pasečnik, the top official appointed by Russia in Luhansk, said that two people had been pulled from the rubble. Rescuers are still searching for children trapped under the debris, he added. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that those responsible should be brought to justice.

“This is a monstrous crime. An attack on an educational institution where there are children and young people,” he said. “Now the most important thing is to take measures to clear the rubble and provide help to those who are still trapped under it.”

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised retaliation after laying red roses on the ruins of an apartment building in Kiev, where a Russian missile attack killed 24 people, including three children.

Both sides deny the deliberate targeting of civilians in this war.