A Russian ballistic missile strike destroyed a school in Odesa’s Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district. At least two school employees are reported dead, and a dozen others were injured, with rescue work ongoing.
The school is currently on summer vacation and no children were reported injured. Teachers and school staff were on site to begin cleaning and organizing their materials for the summer vacation when the strike occurred Monday morning.
Olek Kiper, head of Odesa’s Military Administration, reported the attack via Telegram on Monday.
“None of these Russian strikes are accidental – the Russian army knows exactly where it is hitting. And these are demonstrative strikes,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote.
Russian attacks continue unabated, with overnight attacks killing six. A recent attack in Kyiv on June 17 resulted in 29 deaths after a residential building collapsed.
The town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is approximately 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of the city of Odesa, a common site for Russian attacks since 2022.
The town is also home to a strategic Dnister River port that allows Ukraine to ship via estuaries that connect it to the Danube River. In 2024, the port was privatized and sold to Ukrainian private investors.