Russia bombs school in Ukraine village, dozens feared dead

Dozens of Ukrainians were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb destroyed a school sheltering about 90 people in the basement as Moscow’s invading forces kept up their barrage of cities, towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Luhansk, one of two regions that make up the eastern industrial hub known as the Donbass, is represented by the governor. said the school in the village of Bilohorivka caught fire after Saturday’s bombing. Two bodies were found by emergency crews, and 30 people were rescued. said.

“Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” Gov. Serhiy Haidai posted the following message via Telegram. He also reported that Russian shelling had killed two children, aged 11 and 14, in Pryvillia. said.

Since failing to capture Ukraine’s capital, Russia has focused its offensive in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014 and occupy some territory. The largest European conflict since World War II has developed into a punishing war of attrition due to the Ukrainian military’s unexpectedly effective defense.

The Russian military was determined to conquer Mariupol, a port city that had been under constant attack since the beginning of the war. This was in order to demonstrate its success and get it ready for Monday’s Victory Day celebrations. Only one part of the city isn’t under Russian control: a vast seaside steel mill.

Saturday saw the expulsion of all remaining children, women and civilians who had been hiding in the Azovstal facility with Ukrainian fighters. The troops that remain inside are refusing to surrender, and hundreds of people are believed to have been wounded.

After Saturday’s evacuation of all civilians, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, was installed. saidHe stated in his nightly address that the emphasis would shift to the extraction of the wounded and medical personnel. Zelenskyy saidIn his nightly address, he stated that Sunday’s work would continue to secure humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents and nearby towns.

The Ukrainian government has been reaching out to international organizations to try to secure safe passage for the estimated 2,000 fighters remaining in the plant’s underground tunnels and bunkers. Zelenskyy admitted to the difficulty but said: “We are not losing hope, we are not stopping. Every day we are looking for some diplomatic option that might work.”

According to reports, the Ukrainian leader will hold online talks with Boris Johnson (Britain’s Prime Minister), Joe Biden (the United States President), and other leaders from the Group of Seven. The meeting is partly meant to display unity among Western allies on Victory in Europe Day, which marks Nazi Germany’s 1945 surrender.

Elsewhere on Ukraine’s coast, explosions echoed again Sunday across the major Black Sea port of Odesa, which Russia struck with six cruise missiles on Saturday. There were no immediate reports from authorities.

The Odesa city council saidFour of the missiles fired Saturday on a furniture company. The shock waves and debris caused severe damage to high-rise apartments. Two of the missiles also hit Odesa airport. This was where a Russian attack had destroyed the runway.

Ukrainian leaders warned that attacks would only worsen in the lead-up to Victory Day, the May 9 holiday when Russia celebrates Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945 with military parades. Russian President Vladimir Putin may want to announce some sort of victory in Ukraine during his address to troops on Red Square Monday.

In neighboring Moldova, Russian and separatists troops were on “full alert,” the Ukrainian military warned. The region has increasingly become a focus of worries that the conflict could expand beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Pro-Russian forces disintegrated the Transnistria Section of Moldova in 1992. Russian troops have been there ever since, ostensibly serving as peacekeepers. Those forces are on “full combat readiness,” Ukraine saidWithout providing details as to how it came about,

Moscow sought to sweep through southern Ukraine in order to isolate the country from its Black Sea neighbors and create a Transnistria corridor. However, it has failed to realize these goals.

In a sign of the dogged resistance that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine’s military struck Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war’s first days and has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed Ukraine targeting Russian-held Snake Island in a bid to impede Russia’s efforts to control the sea.

Planet Labs PBC took a satellite image Sunday morning showing smoke rising from two locations on the island. On the island’s southern edge, a fire smoked next to debris. The Ukrainian military released a video showing the strike on the Russian helicopter that had flown over the island.

A Planet Labs image from Saturday showed most of the island’s buildings, as well as what appeared to be a Serna-class landing craft, destroyed by Ukrainian drone attacks.

In eastern Ukraine, the most intense fighting has been taking place in recent times. A Ukrainian counteroffensive near Kharkiv, a city in the northeast that is the country’s second-largest, “is making significant progress and will likely advance to the Russian border in the coming days or weeks,” according to the Institute for the Study of War.

The Washington-based think tank added that “the Ukrainian counteroffensive demonstrates promising Ukrainian capabilities.”

However, the Ukrainian army withdrew from Luhansk province’s embattled city of Popasna, Haidai, the regional governor, said Sunday.

Haidai recorded a video interview and posted it on his Telegram channel. said that Kyiv’s troops had “moved to stronger positions, which they had prepared ahead of time.”

Russia-backed rebels established a separatist region in Luhansk along with Donetsk. Together they make up the Donbas. Russia has attacked areas that are still under Ukrainian control.

“All free settlements in the Luhansk region are hot spots,” Haidai said. “Right now, there are shooting battles in (the villages) of Bilohorivka, Voivodivka and towards Popasna.”

Gambrell reported from Lviv (Ukraine). Yesica Fisch in Bakhmut and David Keyton in Kyiv, Yuras Karamanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chenov in Kharkiv. Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, as well as AP staff from around the globe, contributed to this report.