Ukraine’s General Staff has dismissed Russian claims that Ukrainian forces struck civilian infrastructure in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine as “manipulative.”

Ukrainian forces, the statement said, strike “military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes, strictly adhering to the norms of international humanitarian law, the laws and customs of war.”

The General Staff confirmed that on May 22, Ukrainian forces struck a number of Russian targets: an oil refinery, ammunition depots, air defense systems, and command posts, among them “one of the headquarters of the Rubikon unit” near Starobilsk.

Rubikon is a covert unit of Russia’s Defense Ministry that specializes in drones.

Earlier, authorities in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region reported that Ukrainian forces overnight on May 22 struck an academic building and dormitory at a college in Starobilsk. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, accused Ukrainian forces of “a targeted strike against sleeping, defenseless children.”

Vladimir Putin said six people were killed in the attack, with another 39 wounded and 15 listed as missing. He called the incident a “terrorist attack” and insisted there were no military facilities near the college. Independent sources neither confirm nor deny his account. Putin also instructed Russia’s Defense Ministry to “prepare a response” to the strike on Starobilsk.