Putin vows retaliation after Starobilsk drone strike sparks dispute over target

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised retaliation after accusing Ukraine of carrying out a deadly drone attack on a student dormitory in Starobilsk, an occupied town in the Luhansk region. Speaking at a reception in the Kremlin on Friday, Putin stated that the overnight strike, which he described as involving three waves of 16 drones, resulted in six deaths, 39 injuries, and 15 people missing.

Kremlin-installed local officials released images of a collapsed building and identified one injured student as 19-year-old Diana Shovkun. Russian state-run television broadcast footage of the injured student but did not show any images or videos of those Moscow claims were killed. Putin asserted that no military or intelligence facilities were in the vicinity, rejecting suggestions that air defence systems or electronic warfare caused the damage.

Ukraine’s military confirmed it targeted the headquarters of Russia’s elite Rubicon drone unit in the same location. In a statement, Ukrainian forces accused Rubicon fighters of regularly striking civilians and civilian infrastructure. The military emphasised that its operations strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law and the laws and customs of war.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the details of the incident in Starobilsk. The exact casualty figures and the nature of the target remain disputed, with the accuracy of Russian claims regarding the absence of nearby military facilities unconfirmed by independent international bodies. The specific identity and status of the 15 missing persons are also unknown.

This event follows a separate claim by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday that the headquarters of Russia’s security service, the FSB, was hit in Kherson, resulting in approximately 100 Russian casualties. Moscow’s military has not commented on the Kherson strike, though a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel reported casualties following what it described as a massive drone strike.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, a charge Moscow denies. Last week, Ukrainian officials reported that 24 people, including three girls, were killed when a Russian missile struck a high-rise residential building in Kyiv. Putin has ordered the Russian military to prepare proposals on how to retaliate for the Starobilsk attack.