Ukraine claims that a Russian airstrike demolished a school Saturday, and killed at least 60 people who were sheltering inside. Ukraine deems it a “brutal war crime”:
🇺🇦 MFA strongly condemns #Russian shelling of a school in Bilohorivka, sheltered 60 people, on May 7. #Russia committed this brutal war crime shortly before the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, constantly repeating the tragedy of World War II.#StopRussianWar pic.twitter.com/dxf3fX7GrZ
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) May 8, 2022
The bombing occurred in the small village of Bilohorivka, where an estimated 90 civilians had taken cover. Newsweek reports:
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said 90 people had been sheltering in the school’s basement when the building was attacked. He specified that the building had been hit by a bomb from an aircraft and not a shell.
In a post on Telegram alongside pictures of the devastation, Haidai said “almost the entire village was hiding” in the school’s basement.
Russian shelling also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, Haidai wrote in the post.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been warning citizens that attacks would likely increase leading up to Russia’s Victory Day holiday, which celebrates the 1945 surrender of Nazi Germany. Zelensky insisted Russia would want some sort of military achievement to mark the occasion. It’s not clear how blowing up a bunch of civilians would help that cause, but Putin’s mind moves in mysterious—and murderous—ways.
Ukraine fought alongside the Soviet Union in World War Two. On Sunday, one day before Victory Day, Zelensky grew emotional:
Darkness has returned to Ukraine decades after World War Two… The evil has returned. In a different form, under different slogans, but for the same purpose…
READ RELATED: Russia appoints new general to run invasion
A bloody re-enactment of Nazism has been staged. A fanatical imitation of this regime. Its ideas, actions, words and symbols…
We will overcome everything. And we know this for sure, because our military and all our people are descendants of those who overcame Nazism.
The news of the bombing broke on the same day it was revealed that First Lady Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine for Mother’s Day, sitting down with Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska. Biden said:
I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.
The NY Post reports that Zelenska and her children have remained in hiding since it became clear that one of Putin’s goals was to have Zelensky and his family assassinated.
The school bombing is just the latest tragedy in the months-long war that’s cost thousands of lives and untold suffering. As of March 24, NATO officials estimated that there have been between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian military deaths, Ukraine officials claim that the actual toll is 15,000.
The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, meanwhile, reported that through March 23, 1,035 Ukrainians were killed and 1,650 injured.
We may not know accurate casualty tallies for years, but no matter the count, it’s a sad situation. Zelensky was right— the evil has returned.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece was edited post-publication to correctly reflect Victory Day as May 9. We regret the error.)
Source:
