The regional governor said almost the entire village of Bilohorivka had been seeking shelter in the basement of the school, reports ITV News correspondent Sejal Karia.
Dozens of people are feared to die after a Russian bomb destroyed a school in from Ukraine Donbas region.
The governor of Luhansk province said the school in the town of Bilohorivka caught fire after Saturday’s attack. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, he said.
Around 90 people had taken shelter in the basement of the school, but Governor Serhiy Haidai said on the Telegram messaging app that “the 60 people who remain under the rubble are now most likely dead.”
He added that Russian shelling also killed two boys, aged 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia.
The heaviest fighting in recent days has taken place in eastern Ukraine, where the two sides are entrenched in a fierce battle to capture or recapture territory.
Moscow’s offensive there has been focused on Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted that she was “appalled” by Russia’s attack on the school.
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On the other hand, Russia intended to demonstrate its success in capturing the besieged port city of Mariupol in time for its Victory Day celebrations on Monday.
All remaining women, children and elderly civilians who had taken refuge with Ukrainian fighters at a sprawling steel plant in Mariupol were evacuated on Saturday.
The troops still inside the Azovstal plant have refused to surrender: they are the final resistance against a complete Russian takeover of Mariupol.
Capt. Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, a Ukrainian National Guard battalion that controls the steelworks, told an online news conference Sunday that the site was attacked overnight by three raids by fighter jets, artillery and tanks.
“We are under constant shelling,” he said, adding that Russian infantry tried to storm the plant, a claim Russian officials have denied in recent days, and lay landmines. Captain Palamar said there was a “multitude of casualties” at the plant.
Capturing Mariupol would give Moscow a land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Ukraine during a 2014 invasion.
In a sign of the stubborn resistance that has sustained the fighting in its 11th week, satellite photos show how Ukraine has attacked Russian positions on Snake Island, which was captured in the first days of the war and has become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance.
In the Ukrainian port of Odessa, a key Black Sea port, at least five explosions were heard, local media said. Multiple photos and videos appeared to show smoke trails and clouds in the sky above the city. However, there have been no reports of casualties.
Meanwhile, Western military analysts said a Ukrainian counteroffensive was advancing around the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv.
Ukrainian leaders warned that the attacks would only get worse in the run-up to Victory Day, when Russia celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 with military parades.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video address on Sunday marking the day of the Allied victory in Europe 77 years ago, drawing parallels between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the evils of Nazism.
“Every year on May 8, together with the entire civilized world, we pay our respects to all those who defended the planet against Nazism during World War II,” President Zelenskyy said, adding that previous generations of Ukrainians they understood the meaning of the words “never again”, a phrase often used as a vow never to allow the horrors of the Holocaust to be repeated. “We had no idea that our generation would witness the abuse of these words,” he added.
The Ukrainian leader held talks with boris johnsonthe american president Joe Biden and leaders of other G7 nations on Sunday to discuss increased support for Ukraine.
The G7 (UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan) assured the Ukrainian president that they are “continually ready to make new commitments to help Ukraine secure its free and democratic future, so that Ukraine can defend itself now and deter future acts of aggression.”
The talks came after an announcement that the UK would provide a An additional £1.3bn in military aid in a dramatic aid escalation.
Reference-www.itv.com