On 7 May 2022, during the Battle of Sievierodonetsk in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a school building in the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk Oblast, was struck by a Russian airstrike. Approximately ninety people were sheltering in the basement of the school at the time of the strike. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that this group represented the majority of the village's population at that time.
The airstrike set the building on fire and trapped large numbers of people inside. At least 30 people were rescued from the site. Two deaths were officially confirmed in the immediate aftermath, though Serhiy Haidai, the Governor of Luhansk Oblast, said that the remaining approximately 60 people unaccounted for were believed to have been killed, suggesting a much higher potential death toll than the confirmed figure.
The attack drew international condemnation. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry condemned the strike, as did United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who said he was "appalled" by the attack. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was "horrified" by the bombing and described it as constituting war crimes.
The discrepancy between the two confirmed deaths and the estimated 60 additional people believed killed remains unresolved. No individual victims have been named, and no one has been identified as charged or convicted in connection with this specific strike.