Ukrainian school blown up by Russian firebomb as ‘200 schools destroyed’ – World News

School number 6 in Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk, was torched after Russian troops used firebombs to destroy the third school in the area

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Ukraine: Large fire sweeps through school after Russian attack

A Ukrainian school has been blown up by Russian firebombs as “200 schools have been destroyed by invading forces so far”.

Pictures taken by Pavlo Kirilenko, Ukraine’s head of Donetsk Regional Military Administration, show school number 6 in Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk, on fire after an attack by the Russian military.

On the night of Monday, June 20, the school became the third school in the area to be blown up by firebombs.

Mr. Kirilenko said: “Last night the invaders fired at them with RSZO ‘Grad’ grenades with a magnesium charge.” Magnesium charges are typically used in incendiary bombs and rockets

Incendiary weapons are prohibited by international treaties only when used against civilian populations.

Kirilenko added: “This is the third school in Avdiivka destroyed by the Russians. Overall the squatters [have] destroyed about two hundred schools in [the] Donetsk region.

“And not to mention their hellish hasty propaganda about ‘release’ and ‘denazification’, the truth is that Russian orcs have come to our country to destroy and kill. Civilians first and foremost.”

Ukrainian Armed Forces regularly refer to Russian troops as “Rashists”, a combination of the words “Russian” and “racist”, and as “Orcs”.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what the Kremlin calls a “military special operation”.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia lost about 34,100 soldiers and 1,496 tanks between February 24 and June 21.

Along with 3,606 armored fighting vehicles, 752 artillery units, 239 multiple missile systems, 98 air defense systems, 216 combat aircraft, 181 helicopters.

And 611 drones, 137 cruise missiles, 14 warships, 2,537 motor vehicles and fuel tankers and 59 special equipment.

Russia has held an anti-ship missile exercise in the Baltic Sea amid escalating tensions with NATO member Lithuania after the country blocked the transit of goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

According to their own statements, Ukrainian armed forces have successfully thwarted new Russian advance attempts in the Kharkiv region in north-eastern Ukraine.

And Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, has urged locals in the Kherson region to evacuate the area to help Ukrainian forces “unoccupy” the area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Ukraine’s southern front as Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack in the region to push back Russian troops.

The new chief of the British Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, has told British forces that they must be ready to face Russia on the battlefield and that the British Army must now be in a position to defeat Russia.

US President Joe Biden has pledged another billion US dollars in security aid and weapons to Kyiv.

And US General Mark Milley says Russia lost about 20 to 30 percent of its armored forces during the ongoing invasion.

President Zelenskyy said that a “historic week” had begun in which Kyiv was waiting for a decision from Brussels on its EU candidate status.

In a speech to the African Union on Monday, June 20, Zelenskyy also accused Russia of holding Africa “hostage” over grain and fertilizer shortages.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi held talks with President Zelenskyy on June 16 in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Former Russian President and staunch Vladimir Putin ally, Dmitry Medvedev, has mocked French, German and Italian politicians visiting the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as “fans of frogs, liverwurst and spaghetti”.

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution recommending that the European Union grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country for EU membership.

Around 438 MEPs voted in favor of the resolution, 65 voted against and 94 abstained.

Independent Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov has auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize medal for $103.5 million, with all proceeds going to help Ukrainian refugees.

Muratov, 60, is the editor-in-chief of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which he co-founded in 1993.

He was a staunch supporter of press freedom, arguing that it must remain independent of government interference.