60 Killed in Russian Airstrike on Ukrainian School

Russians Kill More Hiding Civilians

On Sunday, May 8th, Russian forces attacked a school building on the outskirts of Luhansk, Ukraine, taking the lives of 60 innocent people and starting a raging inferno that took hours to put out. Serhiy Haidai, the Luhansk Oblast Governor, announced the airstrike Sunday on Telegram. He said the school building contained about 90 people at the time of the attack. Thirty people were able to be safely removed from the building, but many remained, trapped in the smoldering rubble.

The targeted civilians were hiding in a bomb shelter positioned below the school and were spread out over a 300-meter area. The ensuing fires also damaged a nearby community center. The governor said that the victims were forced to move to this building for safety after Russians bombed another building where civilians were hiding.

Haidai was quoted as saying:

“All 60 people who remained under the rubble of the buildings have most likely died. These are real atrocities of the ‘Russian world’: the cynical shelling of a school with a bomb shelter, the killing of children in Pryvillia. The Russians don’t care who they kill. If they can’t kill a soldier, they will kill an innocent child.” 

Thus far in his “special military operation,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed to kill several hundred Ukrainian children, if not more.

The village of Pryvilia also came under enemy fire on May 7, as Russian forces fired rockets from a Grad multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) at them. That attack killed two boys (ages 11 and 14) and seriously injured a 69-year-old woman.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by the school bombing and reminded everyone that “civilians pay the highest price” in war.

An example of the firepower of the Russian BM-21 Grad MLRS. Video courtesy of YouTube and Gung Ho Vids.

Ukrainian President Zelensky has announced multiple warnings in recent days that he expected Russian attacks to worsen as May 9th, Victory Day approached. As a result, some Ukrainian cities have imposed curfews and/or have cautioned against citizens congregating in mass numbers in public.

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in a recent interview with CNN:

“They have nothing to celebrate tomorrow. They have not succeeded in defeating the Ukrainians. They have not succeeded in dividing the world or dividing NATO. And they have only succeeded in isolating themselves internationally and becoming a pariah state around the globe.”

Russian forces continue to struggle in Ukraine. They are still working on completing their takeover of Mariupol, a city that has largely been reduced to unrecognizable ruins. About 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are continuing to hold out sheltering under the sprawling steel plant there. The last of the women and children who had been holed up with them were evacuated Saturday.

The brave Ukrainian fighters surviving at the Azovstal iron and steelworks have endured repeated shelling by bunker-buster bombs in an attempt to make them surrender their position. They have rejected multiple positions the Russians gave them to lay down their arms. It’s a true Alamo scenario here.

Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment, reminds the world that “We are under constant shelling.” and that Russian ground forces have tried to storm the facility, leaving behind a slew of landmines and “a multitude of casualties.” 

Another remaining member of the Azov Regiment, Lieutenant Illya Samoilenko, has noted to the press that there are a couple of hundred wounded soldiers at the plant but refused to tell how many able-bodied fighters remained.

As noted above and disseminated via Twitter, Samoilenko has a message for the world:

“Surrender is not an option because Russia is not interested in our lives…we need the assistance of the world, the free world. We’re not fighting just for Ukraine; we’re fighting for the free world. Because the Russian appetite will just grow”. 

Lieutenant Samoilenko, please be advised that the vast majority of the free world stands firmly behind you, the rest of your tireless fighters, and your fellow countrymen.

In the end, the will of the Ukrainian people will prevail over the tyranny of the Russian empire.