Russia strikes Ukrainian cities amid blame game over school strike

According to Ukrainian officials, Russia launched dozens of missiles and drones into Ukraine, resulting in 15 deaths. The two sides also traded accusations regarding an attack on a boarding school housing civilians in the town of Suja in Russia's Kursk region, which has been a major target of Ukrainian cross-border attacks since last August.

The Ukrainian military stated that the attack resulted in four deaths, and dozens of people were rescued from the rubble. The Russian side has not released any casualty figures. Despite US President Donald Trump's pledge to achieve a ceasefire "within 24 hours" of taking office on January 20, the fighting in the nearly three-year-long war shows no signs of abating.

Russian attacks on central and eastern Ukraine overnight from Friday to Saturday resulted in at least 15 deaths, according to local authorities and police. Local government officials stated that 11 of those, including a child, died when a missile hit a residential building in the central city of Poltava. On-site images from AFP showed firefighters searching the rubble of a smoking building. "God saved us," said Olena Svyryd, a resident of a nearby building. "Across from us, on the fifth floor, a woman, my friend, was rescued. No, she is dead. She was crushed by the wall. There are many casualties."

Kateryna Yamshchykova, the acting mayor of Poltava, stated that rescue operations are still underway. "Doctors in hospitals are fighting for our injured," she said. Ukraine on Saturday accused Russia of attacking a boarding school housing civilians in the town of Suja in the Kursk region, resulting in four deaths, a town that has been occupied by Kyiv for over five months. Moscow responded on Sunday, accusing Kyiv forces of carrying out the attack. "On February 1, the Ukrainian armed forces committed yet another war crime by launching a targeted missile attack on a boarding school in the city of Suja," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Defense Ministry did not mention any deaths, while Alexander Khinshtein, the acting governor of the Kursk region, stated, "Regarding the number of victims, there is no reliable information at the moment." Last August, Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border offensive into the Kursk region, capturing dozens of villages and small towns, including the regional center of Suja, which had a population of about 6,000 before the fighting. The General Staff of the Ukrainian military stated on Telegram: "Russian aviation used guided aerial bombs to attack a boarding school in the town of Suja in the Kursk region." "This attack was deliberate." It said that at the time of the attack, "dozens of local residents were inside the building preparing to evacuate," and rescue work was underway. In later posts, it stated: "During the clearing of the rubble, 84 civilians were rescued and received medical assistance, their health is satisfactory, 4 of them are in serious condition, and 4 died."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia "uncivilized" and shared a video on social media showing a heavily damaged building and an injured man lying on the ground. "They destroyed the building even though there were dozens of civilians there," Mr. Zelensky said in a post on X. "Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes in the same way. Even against their own civilians, the Russian army uses similar tactics." A Russian official in Kursk told AFP last week that authorities were working "constantly" to ensure the return of Russian civilians trapped on the front lines. It is believed that thousands of Russian civilians are trapped in the fighting in the border region.

Moscow has been advancing on the battlefield for over a year, and its invasion of Ukraine will reach its three-year mark this month. The Russian military said on Saturday that its forces had "liberated" the village of Klynske on the northeastern outskirts of the city of Toretsk. The city of Toretsk in eastern Donetsk has been a target for the Kremlin for months, as capturing the city would allow Russia to cut off vital Ukrainian supply lines. Mr. Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have both stated that they are ready to negotiate an end to the war, but neither side has indicated when or how this would take place.

Mr. Trump has been critical of Washington spending billions of dollars arming Ukraine, while threatening to impose additional sanctions on Russia if Mr. Putin does not reach a "deal" to end the war. Mr. Putin said last month that he was willing to negotiate with Ukraine, but not with Mr. Zelensky, whom he called "illegitimate."