Rachel Lang
Dozens of Ukrainians are now feared dead after the school building they were sheltering in was flattened by a Russian missile.
Many of the people left in the already-war battered town were sheltering in the school basement when it was attacked.
Governor of Luhansk Oblast Serhiy Haidai has already confirmed two deaths with another 30 people rescued from the rubble, according to the BBC.
He has a grim prediction for the remaining people left inside the trapped building.
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"Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead," Haidai said in an online statement.
Haidai also said that Russian shelling had killed two boys in the nearby town of Pryvillia. The children were aged 11 and 14.
These attacks are just the latest aggressions in the conflict, with Russia expected to ramp-up attacks as the Victory Day deadline ticks down.
Victory Day is a Russian national holiday on May 9 that marks when the Soviets drove the Nazis out of their country in 1945.
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Intelligence experts claim Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Victory Day as a deadline to end the war, which has resulted in further aggression and agitation against Ukrainian defenders.
Despite Putin's scramble to launch further attacks to end in victory, Ukraine's top intelligence officer has claimed the only way Russia's invasion of his homeland will end is if Vladimir Putin dies.
Spy chief Kyrylo Budanov said it is 'unrealistic' to think that Moscow will completely pull its forces out of Ukraine.
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He believes the Russian President is now scrambling to mobilise more forces ahead of May 9.
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"They had the main deadline - to have time to finish by April 24… they completely failed him," the spy boss said to The New Voice Of Ukraine.
"Putin cannot admit that he is losing to Ukraine."
As the Victory Day deadline approaches, some cities have imposed curfews or cautioned citizens against public gatherings.
Despite this warning, US First Lady Jill Biden has visited her Ukrainian counterpart, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised his own country’s flag at its embassy in Kyiv, and Bono has performed in Kyiv bomb shelter to sing '60s song 'Stand by Me'.
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