Russian bomb kills dozens in Ukrainian school

ZAPORIZHZHIA, May 08 (AP/AFP): Dozens of Ukrainians were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb destroyed a school sheltering about 90 people in the basement as Moscow's invading forces kept up their barrage of cities, towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The governor of Luhansk province, one of two areas that make up the eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas, said the school in the village of Bilohorivka caught fire after Saturday's bombing. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, he said.
"Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead," Gov. Serhiy Haidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Russian shelling also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said.
Since failing to capture Ukraine's capital, Russia has focused its offensive in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014 and occupy some territory. The largest European conflict since World War II has developed into a punishing war of attrition due to the Ukrainian military's unexpectedly effective defense.
To demonstrate success, Moscow was aiming to complete its conquest of the besieged port city of Mariupol in time for Victory Day celebrations on Monday. All the remaining women, children and older civilians who had been sheltering with Ukrainian fighters in a sprawling steel mill that is the city's last defense holdout were evacuated Saturday.
The troops still inside have refused to surrender and requested international help to get them out, too. Capturing Mariupol would give Moscow a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, annexed from Ukraine during a 2014 invasion.
Satellite photos shot Friday by Planet Labs PBC showed vast devastation at the Azovstal steel mill. Buildings had gaping holes in the roofs, including one under which hundreds of fighters were likely hiding.
After rescuers evacuated the last civilians Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that the focus would turn to extracting the wounded and medics: "Of course, if everyone fulfills the agreements. Of course, if there are no lies."
Elsewhere on the coast, air raid sirens sounded several times early Sunday in the major Black sea port of Odesa, which Russia struck with six cruise missiles on Saturday.
EU wrangles over details
of Russia oil embargo
European diplomats were locked in difficult negotiations on the terms of the EU's sixth round of sanctions against Russia on Sunday, with several members seeking guarantees for their oil supplies.
The package suggested last week by the European Commission would have seen most EU members halting oil imports from Russia by the end of the year, to punish Moscow for invading Ukraine.
But several member states, most vocally Hungary, demanded exemptions from the ban and or support to help them escape their long-standing dependence on a single pipeline for Russian crude.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared the package as presented crossed a "red line" for Hungary, but diplomats in Brussels insist the technical negotiations are not blocked.
Ambassadors were to meet again on Sunday, but hopes that the package will be ready before Monday-to send a signal to Moscow on Russia's Victory Day celebrations-were fading.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said that if there is no agreement over the weekend he will call a meeting of foreign ministers next week.
Any decision on sanctions would have to be approved unanimously by member state governments.
"There is no political blockage, but the need to guarantee alternative sources of supply to landlocked countries dependent on Russian oil by pipeline. And it is not easy," a European diplomat told AFP.
"These are new infrastructure and technological changes, which require not only European funding, but agreements between several member states. We are making progress, but that automatically takes time."