Europe 1 with AFP 10:39 am, March 22, 2023

On the 392nd day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, three people were killed in a Russian drone attack that hit a vocational high school in the Kiev region overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.

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Three people were killed in a Russian drone attack that hit a vocational high school in the Kiev region overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, the state emergency services said. "More than twenty deadly Iranian drones" launched against Ukraine, "as well as missiles, numerous bombings. All this is just the last night of Russian terror," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter, condemning "criminal strikes".

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In total, Russia launched 21 drones against Ukraine in an attack that began shortly before midnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that it shot down 16 of them. Russia attacked Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 combat drones from Russia's Bryansk region in northern Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

Three dead and seven injured

The three people killed died in a strike that hit a high school in Rzhyshchiv, a town about 80 kilometers south of Kiev, said the State Emergency Situations Service (DSNS), which released images of heavily damaged buildings.

Among the dead, the driver of an ambulance arrived at the scene after the attack, said in a statement on Facebook the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office, reporting on its side seven wounded, including an 11-year-old child. Three people could still be under the debris, according to the prosecutor general's office.

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The attack "partially destroyed" two floors of two high school students' residences and a building where they were studying, according to the DSNS. The fire that broke out on the site, affecting more than 300 square meters, was extinguished shortly before 07:00. "More than 200 people have been evacuated," said the police chief in the Kiev region, Andriy Nebytov. "The first explosions (at the high school) sounded around 3 a.m., later a series of others followed," he added.

In the morning, anti-aircraft sirens sounded again throughout Ukraine.