Russian officials: Death toll in drone attack on student dormitory in Luhansk region rises to 16

The death toll from a drone strike on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine has risen to 16, with most of the victims being young women, Russian officials said on Monday, following a heated debate about the incident at the United Nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine, after Moscow accused Kiev of what it said was a deliberate drone attack on a college in the town of Starobilsk.

The Ukrainian military denied responsibility for the attack, saying it had hit an elite drone command unit in the area and that its forces were respecting international humanitarian law. Putin said there were no military facilities in the area.

Reuters said it could not independently confirm what happened.

At the scene, a crane was removing rubble from a huge hole in the building today. In one destroyed classroom, bricks and dust covered rows of desks, while the words "I love English" were written on the wall. Elsewhere, a staircase was blocked by rubble.

Russia's state news agency RIA said the death toll had risen to 16, citing the Emergencies Ministry. Five people were still trapped under the rubble.

Leonid Pasechnik, head of the administration installed by Russia in the region, released a preliminary list with information on 11 victims, most of whom were 19-year-old women.

A local resident said that missiles hit the former base, and then drones hit a student dormitory, causing fires.

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, called by Russia on Friday, Moscow accused Ukraine of war crimes over the incident, while Ukraine said it was an unfounded claim that had not been independently verified.

Several countries have called for access to the site, while UN officials have condemned all attacks on civilians, recalling a Russian missile attack on a UN warehouse in Ukraine this week, which killed two workers and destroyed $1 million worth of aid.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed in airstrikes far from the largely static front line across the country's southeast, about a fifth of which is controlled by Russian forces.

Russia has targeted Ukrainian power supplies and infrastructure, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil facilities inside Russia this year, sometimes resulting in casualties. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

Debris from downed drones has caused a fire at an oil terminal in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, injuring two people, Russian officials said early Saturday.

The Ukrainian military said it had hit Russia's Black Sea oil terminal Shesharis in Novorossiysk and the nearby Grushova oil depot, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said the military had also hit a large chemical plant in Russia's Perm region.

Perm Region Governor Dmitry Makhonin previously said that Ukrainian drones had targeted an industrial facility, which he did not name, but that they had been shot down and that they had caused no damage.