Kursk activist Vladimir Sinelnikov was cited by Astra on Telegram as saying that Russian aerospace forces dropped an aircraft bomb on a former boarding school in the Kursk town of Sudzha that was being used to house elderly and bedridden Russian residents of the town. He said the building was virtually destroyed and more than 90 residents, who it had not been possible to evacuate after Ukraine’s August incursion, were trapped under the rubble.
Shortly afterwards the press officer of the Ukrainian armed forces (AFU) commander in Kursk, Alexey Dmytrashkivskyi confirmed the attack and issued a statement on Facebook that said:
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“Today [Feb.1] at 17:54 Kyiv time, Russian Armed Forces finally struck the boarding school in the city of Sudzha. 95 people were under the rubble. Moans and screams of people can be heard from under the rubble. Let me remind you that most of them are elderly and bedridden.”
He added that “The military commandant’s office is currently conducting search and rescue operations.”
Saturday’s strike followed an earlier attack on the building in January using two S-300 surface to air missiles, which killed a female resident, blew out windows and doors. Russia tried to justify the attack by saying it housed a Ukrainian military command post.
In fact, according to Dmytrashkivskyi speaking at the time, “… the residents are all elderly, and many of them have disabilities, including Parkinson’s disease, some have had strokes or are suffering from mental illness. The condition of people at the moment is quite serious.”
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He added that around 2,000 local residents who were either unable to evacuate or chose to stay in the entire area controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He said that between Aug. 6, when Ukraine invaded the region, and the Jan. 11 nursing home strike Russian attacks had killed 36 civilians, more than 100 had been injured, and around 70 had died of natural causes. He said that many houses in Sudzha had been destroyed and that many surrounding villages simply no longer exist following missile, aerial bomb and artillery strikes by Russia’s armed forces.
Late on Saturday evening the Ukrainian General Staff said that at least four people had been killed and more than 85 injured, four being in serious condition.
President Volodymyr Zelensky posting on “X” said: “This is how Russia wages war – Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school containing civilians. A Russian air bomb destroyed the building even though there were dozens of civilians in it.”
Later still the Ukrainian Air Force released the screenshot shown above taken from its Virazh-Tablet tracking system which clearly showed the trajectory of the Russian aerial glide bomb (KAB). This was in response to claims made earlier by Russia’s Ministry of Defense, as reported by the Astra Telegram channel, that the strike was carried out by Ukrainian missiles launched from the Sumy region of Ukraine.
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