Putin says six killed, nearly 40 wounded in strike on college in self-proclaimed ‘LNR,’ orders Russia’s Defense Ministry to prepare a response

Update: Ukraine’s General Staff says it attacked the headquarters of the Russian drone unit “Rubikon” in Starobilsk, insisting that it targets only “military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes, in strict compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law and the laws and customs of war.”

Vladimir Putin called a strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk, in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (“LNR”), a terrorist attack and ordered Russia’s Defense Ministry to submit proposals for a response.

“Tonight, the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv carried out a terrorist strike on the student dormitory of the Starobilsk Pedagogical College. At night, while the students were sleeping,” Putin said at a meeting with graduates of the Vremya Geroev (“Time of Heroes”) program.

Six people were killed, 39 others were wounded, and 15 are listed as missing, he said. Rescue workers are continuing to clear the rubble.

The strike “was not accidental,” Putin said, adding that no military facilities are located near the dormitory. “There are therefore no grounds whatsoever for claiming that the shells struck the building as a result of our air defense and electronic warfare systems,” he added.

Putin effectively threatened a retaliatory strike against Ukraine. “In cases like this, a statement from the Foreign Ministry is not enough. The Defense Ministry has therefore been ordered to submit its proposals,” he said.

According to authorities in the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Ukrainian forces struck the college’s academic building and dormitory in Starobilsk in the early hours of May 22. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed “LNR,” accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out a “targeted strike on sleeping, defenseless children.”