Russian drone attack on school kills four in Kyiv region
by AFP Staff Writers
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) March 22, 2023

Four people were killed and several more wounded in a Russian drone attack that hit a school in the Kyiv region overnight, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.

The emergency services initially said three people had been killed in the strike south of the capital Kyiv but police later announced another victim.

"The fourth victim was a 40-year-old driver. The man did not go down to the shelter during the air raid alerts," said Andrii Nebytov, the head of the Kyiv region police.

An ambulance driver called to the scene was among those killed, the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said.

The strike hit a high school about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Kyiv, said the emergency services, which published images of badly damaged buildings.

The attack "partially destroyed" two floors of two student residences and a building that is used for studying, the same source said.

A fire affecting more than 300 square metres (3,200 square feet) of the school was extinguished shortly before 7 am local time, according to the emergency services.

Ukraine's air force said Russia attacked Ukraine with 21 "Iranian-made" drones, with 16 shot down.

"Over 20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling... and that's just in one night of Russian terror against Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter.

Russia regularly pounds Ukraine with missiles, artillery and drones, often causing power cuts that prevent people from warming their homes or getting drinking water.

Russian navy 'repelled' drone attack on Crimea port
Moscow (AFP) March 22, 2023 - The Russian navy "repelled" a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea early on Wednesday, the Kremlin-backed governor of the city said.

The peninsula, seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, is home to Moscow's Black Sea Fleet and has been hit by a series of drone attacks since the Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine.

The attack came just four days after President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Sevastopol.

"In total, three objects have been destroyed," the Russian-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.

He said military personnel had shot at the drones with "small arms" and that "air defence was also working".

Razvozhayev added there were no casualties and claimed no ships had been damaged, but said that the explosions blew out windows in nearby buildings.

These included the Moscow House cultural centre, a well known building that is beyond the port.

But Razvozhayev downplayed the attack, saying the navy "confidently and calmly" repelled it. He urged calm saying the "situation was under control".

In a later post, he dismissed reports that people were leaving Crimea, saying it was a "lie" spread by Kyiv.

"Information is spreading about evacuations from the peninsula by ferry crossings and other such nonsense," he said.

A day earlier Kyiv said Russian missiles were destroyed in a blast in Crimea, but denied responsibility for the incident.

In October, Russia's Black Sea Fleet was hit by a major drone attack that the Kremlin blamed on Ukraine.

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