Sixty Feared Dead in Ukraine School Bombing; G7 condemns Putin

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ZAPORIZHZHIA (AP) — Some 60 people are feared dead when a bomb ripped through a school in a village in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said Sunday, as Russian forces continued to bombard the last holdout of the Ukrainian resistance in the ruined port of Mariupol, in the southeast.

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The governor of the Lugansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, said the school in Bilohorivka, where some 90 people were sheltering, was hit by a Russian bomb on Saturday that set it on fire.

“There is almost no hope that anyone will survive. The aerial bomb exploded in the middle (of the building),” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “In the school there were approximately 90 people, 27 were rescued. About 60 people probably died.”

Reuters could not immediately verify his account. There was no response from Moscow to the report.

Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of targeting civilians in the war, something Moscow denies.

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In Mariupol, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant pleaded with the international community to help evacuate wounded soldiers.

“We will continue to fight as long as we are alive to repel the Russian occupiers,” Captain Sviatoslav Palamar told an online news conference.

More than 170 civilians were evacuated from the Mariupol area on Sunday, bringing the total to around 600 who were given safe passage during a week-long rescue operation, the United Nations said.

As the fighting continued, now in its third month, with authorities in the eastern Kharkiv region reporting more casualties from Russian bombing, leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries vowed on Sunday to deepen Russia’s economic isolation and “elevate” a campaign against Russia. Elites linked to the Kremlin.

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US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders held a video call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of unity ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on Monday.

The G7 said it was committed to phasing out or banning Russian oil and denounced President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Your actions shame Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people,” the group said in a statement, referring to Soviet Russia’s role in defeating Nazi Germany 77 years ago.

Washington also unveiled another round of sanctions targeting more executives and companies as part of a broad effort to isolate Russia and limit resources being used to advance the war. He also announced a new policy of visa restrictions for more than 2,500 Russian and Russian-backed military officers forced into Ukraine, according to a State Department fact sheet.

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VICTORY DAY

In the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Mariupol, dozens of people who had fled the city and nearby occupied areas waited to register at a parking lot designated for evacuees.

“There are still a lot of people in Mariupol who want to leave but can’t,” said history teacher Viktoria Andreyeva, 46, who said she had just arrived in the city after leaving her bombed-out home in Mariupol with her family in mid-July. april.

“The air feels different here, free,” he said at a tent where volunteers offered food, basic supplies and toys to evacuees, many of whom were traveling with young children.

In an emotional speech Sunday for Victory Day, when Europe commemorates Nazi Germany’s formal surrender to the Allies in World War II, Zelenskyy said evil had returned to Ukraine with the Russian invasion, but his country would prevail.

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Putin says he launched a “special military operation” on February 24 to disarm Ukraine and rid it of Western-sponsored anti-Russian nationalism. Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an unprovoked war.

Mariupol is key in Moscow’s efforts to link the Crimean peninsula, occupied by Russia in 2014, and parts of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions that have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists ever since.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on Telegram that he visited Mariupol on Sunday, the country’s top government figure setting foot in the city after weeks of Russian bombardment.

Khusnullin, who is in charge of construction and urban development, visited the commercial port there and said it should serve to bring in building materials to restore the city, according to the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda TV channel.

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Several Western officials, including US First Lady Jill Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a head of the German parliament and the Norwegian foreign minister, arrived in Ukraine on Sunday in a show of support. A team of US diplomats also arrived in kyiv for the first time since the invasion.

Putin sent Victory Day messages to separatist leaders in Luhansk and Donetsk, saying Russia was fighting shoulder to shoulder with them and comparing their joint efforts to war against Nazi Germany. “Victory will be ours,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin press release on Sunday.

Russia’s efforts have been hampered by logistical and equipment problems and high casualties in the face of fierce resistance.

Putin will preside over a parade of troops, tanks, rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles in Moscow’s Red Square on Monday, delivering a speech that could offer clues about the future of the war.

The Russians “have nothing to celebrate tomorrow,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on CNN. “They have not managed to defeat the Ukrainians. They have failed to divide the world or divide NATO.”