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Death toll in student dorm strike rises to 10, Russian-installed official says

By Reuters Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Rescuers work amid debris of a destroyed dormitory building of the Starobilsk College of Luhansk Pedagogical University following an overnight attack, what Russian-installed authorities called a Ukrainian drone strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Starobilsk (Starobelsk) in the Luhansk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, May 22, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Pavel Klimov/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Rescuers work amid debris of a destroyed dormitory building of the Starobilsk College of Luhansk Pedagogical University following an overnight attack, what Russian-installed authorities called a Ukrainian drone strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Starobilsk (Starobelsk) in the Luhansk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, May 22, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Pavel Klimov/File Photo Pavel Klimov Reuters

The death toll from a drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine has risen to 10 from six, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday.

Russia on Friday accused Ukraine of what it described as a deliberate drone strike in the town of Starobilsk with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordering his military to prepare options for retaliation.

Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian-installed administration in the region, said that 10 people had been killed, 48 were injured and 11 were still unaccounted for.

Ukraine's military denied the Russian accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area. It said that Kyiv complied with international humanitarian law.

(Reporting by Maxim RodionovEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 4:03 AM.

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