KYIV: A Russian strike on a school in north-east Ukraine killed four people Wednesday, razing the building to the ground in the Sumy region that borders Russia in an attack that came as the war in Ukraine enters its 19th month.

Three civilians were also killed in Russia’s Belgorod region while the capital Moscow was targeted by a drone attack for the sixth night in a row, with the war now hitting Russian territory daily.

In Ukraine’s Romny village, 230km east of Kyiv, where the school attack hit, rescuers found the bodies of the school director, deputy director, secretary and librarian under the rubble.

“The number of victims of the Russian attack on the school in Romny has increased to four people,” Ukraine’s Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Telegram. Four local residents passing by the school were wounded, Klymenko added.

Moscow and other Russian regions were hit by more Ukrainian drone attacks on Wednesday, as Kyiv vowed earlier this summer to “return” the war to Russia.

In the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, authorities said three civilians were killed by Kyiv’s forces on Wednesday.

“The Ukrainian forces launched an explosive device through a drone when people were on the street,” Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

The region has been targeted by shelling, drone attacks and occasional cross-border incursions for months.

In Moscow’s central business district — Moscow City — a drone attack crashed into a skyscraper and smashed a window, without causing any casualties.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2023