Russia's claims that Ukrainian strikes hit civilian infrastructure in occupied territories are "another information manipulation," Ukraine's General Staff said. Ukraine targets only military infrastructure and objects used for military purposes in compliance with international humanitarian law, the command said.
On the night of 22 May, Ukraine's Defense Forces said they struck a series of Russian military targets, including the headquarters of an elite Russian "Rubicon" drone unit in Russian-occupied Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast. Other targets included an oil refinery, ammunition depots, air defense systems, command posts, and personnel concentration areas.
UPDATE: The strike killed students, and the target is disputed
At least 21 people were killed, most of them students at the Starobilsk Pedagogical College, where the academic building and a dormitory were hit, Meduza reported, drawing on the independent journalist cooperative Bereg, which reached classmates and friends of the named dead. The toll rose over several days from the six deaths Russian President Vladimir Putin cited on 22 May.
The target is contested. Ruslan Leviev of the independent investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team said obituaries, photographs, and video from the scene showed no visible signs of a military facility such as a Rubicon headquarters, and that the dead and injured were college students.
Ukraine's General Staff has not addressed the casualties and maintains it struck only military targets. Russia organized a visit for some 50 foreign correspondents to the site — access independent journalists are otherwise denied in occupied territory — and framed the dead as "children," though the casualty list Moscow released records victims born between 2003 and 2008, The Moscow Times reported.
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The Russian unit Ukraine says it struck was created by Defense Minister Andrey Belousov in August 2024 to specialize in drone warfare techniques. Rubicon's strikes have killed Ukrainian civilians as well as soldiers: a Rubicon drone hit a coal train in Donetsk Oblast, killing its engineer and his assistant, UNITED24 reported in July 2025.
What the General Staff said
The Russian Federation, the General Staff said, is conducting an information campaign that misrepresents the targets of Ukrainian strikes on occupied territories. The Armed Forces of Ukraine "strike exclusively military infrastructure and objects used for military purposes, in compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law."
A documented pattern of Ukrainian strikes on Rubicon facilities
Today's Starobilsk claim adds to a documented pattern.
Ukrainian FP-2 drone carrying 105kg warhead eliminates Rubikon officers in occupied Avdiivka
In November 2025, a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian base in occupied Avdiivka destroyed a Rubicon headquarters, according to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.
Ukrainian rocket and artillery forces have also destroyed Rubicon control points and ammunition depots in occupied Donetsk Oblast in separate strikes documented by Ukrainian defense outlets. Ukrainian commanders deployed against Rubicon units in occupied territory have described the operational pressure the formation exerts as significant: the unit's deployment north of Kharkiv last fall, with the stated mission of cutting Ukrainian logistics supply routes, was "really painful for us" initially, a Ukrainian soldier identified as Rybka told the outlet UNITED24 in October 2025.
Update, 28 May 2026: This article has been updated since its initial publication on 22 May. The headline now attributes the strike on a claimed "Rubicon" headquarters to Ukraine's General Staff. The article has also been expanded to report that at least 21 people, most of them students, were killed at the site, and that independent investigators have questioned whether a military target was present.
