The first information on the evening of February 1 appeared in the Telegram channel of Kursk volunteer Vladimir Sinelnikov, who reported that a bomb hit the building of a boarding school where people left homeless were located. Later, he wrote that 95 people were under the rubble, «mostly elderly and sick people, as well as those who lost their homes as a result of hostilities».
Later, Sinelnikov attached a video to his post, which was also published in other Telegram channels. It begins with a five-second video, followed by photographs depicting a partially destroyed three-story brick boarding school building with the word «people» on the facade. When they were taken is not specified, but in the post, the activist writes that «photos from the scene are expected».
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian army struck with a guided aerial bomb at the boarding school at the moment when there were «dozens of local residents» preparing for evacuation. Later, the department reported that four people died, four more are in serious condition, and 84 people were rescued from the rubble.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine published a map showing the trajectory of the guided aerial bomb (KAB) that hit the building of the former boarding school in Sudzha, confirming the thesis of the missile launch from a Russian aircraft. «As is traditional, numerous Russian public channels accuse Ukraine of the strike. It won't work! There is irrefutable evidence and results of objective control that the strike was carried out by Russian tactical aviation», — noted in the message of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense and the authorities of the Kursk region commented on the situation with a significant delay, and the z-blogger channels either denied the fact of the bomb hit in the first hours or claimed that it was launched from the Sumy region. In the statement of the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was said, without providing evidence, that «on February 1, the armed forces of Ukraine committed another war crime by deliberately launching a missile strike on a boarding school in the city of Sudzha. The launch of enemy missiles from the Sumy region was recorded by Russian air defense systems». According to the Russian department, this «provocation» was an attempt by Ukraine to divert attention from the «atrocities of the Kyiv regime committed in the settlement of Russkoye Poperechnoye in the Kursk region».