Russia has accused Ukraine of striking a dormitory in occupied eastern Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin has warned of retaliation, the BBC reported Saturday, May 23. A Russia-backed local governor said the overnight strike on Starobilsk in the Luhansk region killed 10 people and wounded 38, with 11 more missing. Ukraine’s military said it had hit the headquarters of Russia’s elite Rubicon drone unit in Starobilsk, but did not say whether that was the building Russia referred to.
Putin said there were no military installations, intelligence offices or related infrastructure in the area. Speaking at a Kremlin event on Friday, he said there was no basis for claims that munitions had hit the building because of Russian air defense or electronic warfare systems.
Putin ordered the Russian military to prepare for retaliation. He said Ukraine had used 16 drones in three waves to carry out the strike. Early Saturday, Russian officials said falling debris from Ukrainian drones had set a fuel depot on fire at the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, wounding two. The headquarters of the southern Krasnodar region said several technical and administrative buildings caught fire and drone fragments fell on a fuel terminal. Two people were being treated in hospital. No deaths were reported. Drone strikes also damaged several private homes in the city of Anapa.
The Ukrainian military said in a Friday-night statement that the target was the headquarters of the Rubicon unit in Starobilsk. It accused the unit of regular attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
The statement said Ukrainian forces were striking only military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes, in strict compliance with international humanitarian law and the laws and customs of war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Ukraine had struck the headquarters of Russia’s FSB security agency in the occupied area of southern Kherson, killing or wounding about 100 Russian occupiers. Russia’s military has not commented. A pro-Kremlin Telegram channel reported casualties after a large drone strike.
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