Vladimir Putin has promised retaliation after accusing Ukraine of carrying out a deadly attack on a student dormitory in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine.
Six people were killed and 39 injured in the overnight strike in the town of Starobilsk, in the Luhansk region, the Russian President said. Another 15 people were missing.
Ukraine’s military said it had hit the headquarters of Russia’s elite Rubicon drone military unit in Starobilsk. It did not say whether it was the same building as the one identified by Russia.
But Putin said there were “no military facilities, intelligence service facilities or related services in the vicinity”.
“Therefore, there is absolutely no basis for claiming that the munitions struck the building as a result of our air defence or electronic warfare systems,” he said at a reception in his Kremlin residence in Moscow on Friday.
He ordered the Russian military to prepare “proposals” on how to retaliate.
The Russian leader said the Ukrainian strike had been carried out in three waves using 16 drones.
Russia’s state-run TV showed what it said was one of the injured students, identifying her as Diana Shovkun, aged 19.
She had head injuries after being hit by a collapsing concrete slab, the report said.
No photos or videos of those who Moscow says were killed were shown.
Early on Saturday, Russian officials reported two people had been injured after falling debris from drones triggered a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
