Russian Military Academy Targeted in Occupied Luhansk: Reports

A Russian military academy in Ukraine's occupied eastern Luhansk region was targeted in an attack on Monday, according to local reports.

"In occupied Luhansk, [a missile] struck near the Academy of Internal Affairs, where the occupiers were based," Andriy Tsaplienko, a Ukrainian journalist, said on his Telegram channel, sharing footage of the attack on the village of Yubileiny in Luhansk.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify when or where the footage was filmed.

The attack comes as Moscow's forces are making significant gains in eastern Ukraine as part of a push by President Vladimir Putin to seize territory before military aid from Kyiv's allies arrives. The Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which comprise the Donbas area, are suffering constant shelling.

A large fire broke out in Yubileiny on Monday, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported. The publication said eyewitnesses heard an explosion before the blaze.

Emergency services were at the scene, the publication added, without mentioning whether the Russian military academy was struck.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's defense ministry for comment by email.

Ukrainian publication RBC reported that the military base was struck during a series of blasts. There were about eight explosions and Russian air defense systems were only activated once, residents told the publication.

Footage and images of the reported attack were shared by numerous Russian Telegram news channels, including Astra.

"The morning for the Russian occupiers in Luhansk started not with coffee, but with a missile strike on their base near the Academy of Internal Affairs," said X, formerly Twitter, user Dmitri, from War Translated, an independent project that translates materials about the war"

"The Russians immediately showed the fragments - a convenient engraving supposedly indicates the country of origin of this weapon," he added.

Maria Drutska, whose X account states that she works in the Ukrainian foreign affairs sector, wrote on X: "In the temporarily occupied Luhansk, a powerful explosion occurred.

"According to preliminary data, the strike was directed at the location of the russian occupiers' base."

Ukraine is reported to have previously targeted a Russian training ground in the Luhansk region.

On May 1, military analysts shared aerial drone footage that appeared to show Russian soldiers being targeted with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles.

The U.S. recently secretly sent Ukraine Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) capable of hitting targets nearly 200 miles away.

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