UN Denounces Deadly Luhansk Dormitory Strike Amid War Crimes Row

(MENAFN) United Nations officials raised urgent alarm Friday over a reported strike on a student dormitory in Russian-occupied Luhansk, Ukraine, with conflicting accounts from Kyiv and Moscow deepening tensions at an emergency UN Security Council session.

Edem Wosornu, director of operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the council the attack "caused scores of civilian casualties, including children," warning of a mounting humanitarian toll that he said brazenly defies international law.

"The human cost of this war reveals a pattern that defies international humanitarian law," said Wosornu. "Civilians must be protected."

Preliminary reports indicate at least six people were killed and dozens wounded in the strike, among them children. Wosornu further disclosed that nearly 16,000 civilians have lost their lives and over 44,000 have been injured across Ukraine since the war's outbreak in February 2022 — stressing that the true toll is "most certainly much higher."

Vanessa Frazier, the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for children and armed conflict, said the UN had been "following with concern reports from the Luhansk region of Ukraine under temporary occupation by the Russian Federation." She confirmed that an overnight strike on a vocational school and dormitory in the town of Starobilsk "killed and injured several people, including children."

Frazier cautioned, however, that the UN lacks access to the affected area and "is not in a position to confirm details of the reported attack." She nonetheless condemned "all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure," reiterating that such strikes are categorically prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Dueling Accusations at the Security Council
The session quickly descended into sharp diplomatic confrontation. Russia's UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya squarely blamed Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of "deliberately" targeting the dormitory with four drones in what he called a "horrific terrorist attack." He insisted the strike was "deliberate" and "could not have been accidental. Three waves of drones struck the same area."

Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, Andriy Melnyk, flatly rejected the accusations, asserting that Ukraine's operation on May 22 "exclusively targeted" a Russian oil refinery, which he described as the engine of the "Russian war machine."

Melnyk dismissed Moscow's account as "profoundly disrespectful," and disclosed that Russia had launched 124 drones across Ukraine overnight — the majority intercepted, though several breached defenses and struck multiple sites, causing further casualties.

"Such false accusations belong to a textbook disinformation campaign from Moscow designed to deflect from its own war crimes and manipulate international public opinion," he said.

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