The UN does not have access to the area – which is under temporary Russian occupation – and cannot verify the details of the reported attack.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said the dormitory had housed at least 86 teenagers aged between 14 and 18.
“The attack reportedly left six dead and dozens injured, including children,” he said during an emergency meeting of the Security Council in New York.
Chaiban added that rescue operations were still underway and that “it is too early to know the full extent of the casualties.”
Children pay the price of war
He highlighted that children are disproportionately affected: “This is yet another example of children paying the price for a war they did not cause themselves.”
According to verified data from the UN, More than 3,400 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine since Russia’s large-scale invasion in 2022..
End attacks against civilians
The spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric, stated that the Organization “We strongly condemn any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur.“
“As the Secretary-General has repeatedly stressed, these types of attacks are prohibited by international humanitarian law and must stop immediately,” Dujarric said.
The boss challenges international law
Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, stressed the need to protect civilians.
“The situation is still developing and there are many things we still don’t know,” he told ambassadors at the Security Council. “But What we do know is that the human cost of this war reveals a pattern that defies international humanitarian law. Civilians must be protected.“
Vanessa Frazier, the Secretary-General’s special representative for children and armed conflict, said several people could still be trapped under the rubble, adding that she had been following the reports from Luhansk “with concern.”
Follow the Council’s discussions here.
UNHCR warehouse attacked in Ukraine
Earlier on Friday, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said Escalating attacks in Ukraine were killing and wounding increasing numbers of civilians, while disrupting humanitarian work..
Bernadette Castel-Hollingworth, UNHCR’s country representative, said a warehouse rented by the agency in the eastern city of Dnipro had been hit by a missile earlier this week during a Russian attackdestroying emergency shelter materials and relief supplies intended for displaced civilians.
“This was the first such attack on a UNHCR facility since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion,” the agency said in a statement.
UNHCR also warned of a worrying trend of attacks on humanitarian staff and operations.. Last week, two clearly marked UN humanitarian convoys were attacked by drones while delivering aid near frontline areas.