"At the time of the attack, dozens of local residents were inside the building preparing to evacuate," Ukraine's military said on Feb. 1, adding that nearly 95 people could be trapped under the rubble.

In a statement, Zelenskyy emphasised that the Russian authorities struck the building despite the fact that dozens of citizens seeking shelter in the building were from Russia

Ukraine and Russia trade accusations over a deadly attack on a boarding school in Sudzha, a city in Russia's Kursk region, which has been under Ukrainian control. Ukraine's General Staff reported that four people were killed and four seriously injured in the strike.

Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of killing four people in a strike on a boarding school sheltering civilians in the Kursk region town of Sudzha, which Kyiv has occupied for over five months. Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk region last August,