Russian airstrike on Sudzha boarding school is a deliberate attack — military observer

Military and political observer Oleksandr Kovalenko shared his opinions on his Telegram channel.

Russian propaganda outlets immediately alleged that the strike was a missile attack carried out by Ukrainian forces — essentially claiming that Ukrainian soldiers bombed themselves.

Although the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has refuted this manipulation, Kovalenko says a few key points need to be highlighted.

Footage of the destroyed building, he notes, indicates that a powerful munition was used, most likely a guided aerial bomb based on the OFAB-500 (a 500-kilogram bomb). In terms of missile comparison, only Storm Shadow/Scalp EG or ATACMS would have a similar destructive capacity. “Yet, according to Russian propaganda, Ukraine supposedly squandered its scarce missiles just to kill a few civilians in Sudzha?” he notes.

Kovalenko points out that Russian aviation has been systematically wiping Sudzha off the map, and Russian propagandists do not hesitate to publish videos of guided aerial bomb strikes on the city. He emphasizes that the intensity of these strikes increased before Donald Trump's inauguration and has remained high since.

The most crucial part, as Kovalenko explains, is that, according to military doctrine inherited by the Russian army from the USSR, schools, hospitals, administrative buildings, and hotels are priority targets during an offensive for capturing, and during defense for holding, as they provide ideal locations for personnel accommodation, command posts, and storage facilities. That is why, he says, when Russian forces advance in cities, they try to seize schools and hospitals. But when the goal is to erase a city, these buildings are the first to be destroyed — regardless of whether they are used by the enemy, whether there are headquarters or storage facilities inside, or even if they have "PEOPLE!" or "CHILDREN!" written on them, as was the case with the Mariupol Drama Theater. Such targets are destroyed without hesitation.

Kovalenko stresses that knowing this Russian tactic, the Ukrainian Armed Forces avoid placing personnel and infrastructure in such buildings. However, he notes that there is simply no alternative to placing refugees or the sick in schools, boarding schools, or hospitals. And the Russian side was well aware of how the boarding school in Sudzha was being used.

That is why, Kovalenko asserts, it is extremely likely that the Russian air force did not strike the Sudzha boarding school by mistake or due to a misfired bomb, as often happens with guided aerial bombs. “It was a deliberate attack!” he concludes.

• On the evening of Saturday, February 1, the Russian army dropped an air bomb on a boarding school in Sudzha, Kursk region, where elderly and sick people were seeking shelter