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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Bill McLoughlin

Russia school bombing kills two but ‘60 likely to have died’ as UK says Putin’s war ‘faltering’

Two people have been killed after Russian forces bombed a school in Ukraine.

According to Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk, Russian missiles targeted the village of Bilohorivka.

While two have been killed, a further 60 people remain under the rubble, the governor said.

"Seven of them were injured," Gaidai wrote on wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app. "Sixty people were likely to have died under the rubble of buildings."

Up to 30 people have been rescued and this comes as the UK has warned Russian commanders have entered the battlefield.

Two people have been killed (via REUTERS)

According to the Ministry of Defence MoD, it is not clear if the presence of the commanders has made any significant impact on Russia’s war effort.

A statement from its latest update, the MoD says: “It is not clear that the presence of these commanders on the battlefield has led to a refined or altered operational concept.

“Flawed planning assumptions and failures in sustainment continue to undermine Russian progress.

“The forward deployment of commanders has exposed them to significant risk, leading to disproportionately high losses of Russian officers in this conflict.

“This has resulted in a force that is slow to respond to setbacks and unable to alter its approach on the battlefield.

“These issues are likely to endure given the relative lack of operational command experience of the officers promoted in place of those killed.”

After being udnersiege from Russian shelling, Ukrainian troops were able to rescue all remaining civilians from the Azovstal steel plant on Saturday.

The steel plant has been the last line of defence in the city of Mariupol, which has seen some of the worst shelling since the war began.

While the civilians have been rescued, it is thought up to 2,000 soldiers remain and are fighting off Russian advances on the complex.

Vladmir Putin is also expected to make a “big announcement” during a military parade for Russia's Victory Day on Monday, Western officials said on Friday.

They have speculated he may use the annual celebration marking Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 to declare mass mobilisation or state that he is widening the conflict in Ukraine.

Parades are planned for Red Square in Moscow and other cities across the country on May 9.

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