Reuters was not able to immediately ​verify what happened independently, and there was ​no immediate comment from Ukraine, which is fighting ⁠to try to return Luhansk, one of ​four regions Russia unilaterally claimed as its own ​in 2022 in what Kyiv said was an illegal land grab.

Yana Lantratova, Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner, said that ​86 teenagers aged between 14 and 18 had ​been sleeping inside Luhansk Pedagogical University’s Starobilsk college when Ukrainian ‌drones ⁠attacked it.

“The Ukrainian armed forces carried out a targeted strike on sleeping children,” Lantratova said in a statement.

Leonid Pasechnik, the top Russia-installed official in ​Luhansk, said ​two people ⁠had been pulled from the rubble and that rescue workers were still ​looking for children trapped beneath the ​debris.

Photos and ⁠videos released by the Russian authorities showed rescue workers stretchering one man out of the rubble, ⁠severely ​damaged buildings, one of which ​appeared to have partially collapsed, and fires still burning.