Ukraine war: UN chief 'appalled' by Russia's reported bombing that killed 60 at school

UN Secretary General Guterres says attack is a reminder 'it is civilians who pay the highest price' in war

An injured Ukrainian service member sits at a field hospital inside Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting in Kyiv with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra. Reuters

Ukrainian servicemen study a Swedish shoulder-launched weapon system during a training session near Kharkiv. AP Photo

Russian emergency personnel clear debris inside Mariupol's drama theatre. AFP

Ukrainian servicemen study a map near Kharkiv. EPA

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an online meeting with the Saratov region's acting governor, Roman Busargin, in Moscow. AP

Belgian soldiers take part in a Nato military exercise near Munster, Germany. Getty

Ukraine's prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova, left, speaks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, during her visit to mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine. EPA

A guard of honour stands at attention during the funerals of Sgt Olexandr Moisenko and Sergiy Turpetko in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty

Plumes of smoke rise above the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol amid Russian shelling. AFP

US President Joe Biden signs into law a measure making it easier for Washington to send weapons and supplies to the government in Kyiv. Bloomberg

A Ukrainian soldier fires with a mortar, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters

The Eiffel Tower is lit up in blue and yellow, the national colours of Ukraine, to express solidarity with its people at the request of the French Presidency of the EU, in Paris. Reuters

A Ukrainian Army tank drives over an infantryman during a training exercise near Kryvyi Rih. Getty Images

A Ukrainian soldier rests in his room at a front-line field hospital near Popasna, Luhansk region. EPA

Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the Memorial to Hero Cities at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow. EPA

Ukrainian refugees from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are seen in a bus as they arrive at a humanitarian aid centre for internally displaced people, in Zaporizhzhia. Reuters

A hotel complex destroyed by a Russian missile is pictured in Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters

Maksym, 3, is photographed with his brother, Dmytro, 16, on top of a destroyed Russian tank on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP Photo

A video of a press conference from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol by Azov regiment servicemen Illia Samoilenko, right, and Sviatoslav Palamar, seen on a computer screen in Kyiv. EPA

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a online meeting of G7 leaders in Kyiv. Reuters

US first lady Jill Biden greets Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, outside a public school in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters

Irish singer and activist Bono, the lead vocalist of rock band U2, performs at a subway station that has been turned into a bomb shelter in Kyiv. AFP

A boy looks out of a bus window as people evacuated from Mariupol arrive in Zaporizhzhia. AFP

A night-vision image shows fire on Ukraine's Zmiinyi Island. Reuters

Women sing the Ukrainian national anthem below the Euro Monument during a demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany. AP

Emergency personnel at a school building hit by shelling, in the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk. Reuters

A man plays piano in an abandoned photo studio in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. AFP

A man and his son wait for an evacuation bus in Lysychansk, eastern Ukraine. AFP

Volunteers deliver food supplies to residents, taken from the warehouse of a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Severodonetsk. AFP

An unexploded ordnance on a road in Severodonetsk. AFP

Galina Abdurashikova, 65, has been staying in an abondoned car in front of her apartment since her room was destroyed by shelling five days ago, in Severodonetsk. AFP

A large hole at the site where a missile strike hit a residential area in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Reuters

A man searches for useful items inside his house after a missile strike in a residential area, in Bakhmut. Reuters

Two men look at the damage after a missile struck a cement plant, in Bakhmut. Reuters

Civilians attempting to leave Mariupol wait in line at a checkpoint near the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village. EPA

Civilians who were evacuated from Azovstal, walk in the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village, near Mariupol. EPA

A cyclist photographs the destroyed bridge over the Irpin river, in Irpin. Getty Images

A residential area destroyed by Russian shelling, in Irpin. Reuters

People with their luggage walk to a station to wait for the evacuation train heading to the west of Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. EPA

A volunteer shapes metal plates at a factory producing material for Ukrainian soldiers in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. AP

Workers clean shattered glass and debris in front of a residential building next to a site of a Russian missile attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. AFP

A Ukrainian Army tank moves towards a fron-tline position in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Getty Images

Eugene Yevchenko cries as he bids farewell to his daughter Maria at a coach station in Lviv. Getty Images

A child stands on a destroyed Russian tank near Makariv, Kyiv region. Reuters

A Ukrainian national guard soldier mans a fighting position near the front line in Zelenodolsk. Getty Images

Museum workers carry the sculpture of Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorri Skovoroda from the destroyed building of the Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Literary Memorial Museum in the village of Skovorodynivka, in Kharkiv Region. AFP

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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by reports more than 60 people were feared dead after a Russian bomb hit a school in Ukraine that is being used as a shelter.

The bomb struck the school in Bilohorivka, in the eastern Luhansk region, which then caught fire on Saturday, officials said.

Mr Guterres called it a reminder that “it is civilians who pay the highest price” in war.

It came as Moscow's forces intensified their attack on Mariupol’s steel plant in what appeared to be a race to capture the city before Russia’s Victory Day holiday.

Authorities said about 90 people were sheltering in the basement. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, but “most likely all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russian shelling also killed two boys, aged 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east that Russia’s forces are working to capture.

As Moscow prepared to celebrate the 1945 surrender of Nazi Germany with a Victory Day military parade on Monday, a line-up of Western leaders and celebrities made surprise visits to Ukraine in a show of support.

US first lady Jill Biden met her Ukrainian counterpart, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised his country’s flag at its embassy in Kyiv, and U2’s Bono, alongside bandmate The Edge, performed in a Kyiv subway station that had been used as a bomb shelter, singing the 1960s song Stand By Me.

The acting US ambassador to Ukraine, Kristina Kvien, posted a picture of herself at the American Embassy, and described plans for the eventual US return to the Ukrainian capital after Moscow’s forces abandoned their effort to storm Kyiv weeks ago and began focusing on the capture of the Donbas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others gave warnings in recent days that Russian attacks would only worsen in the lead-up to Victory Day, and some cities declared curfews or cautioned people against gathering in public. Russian President Vladimir Putin may want to proclaim some kind of triumph in Ukraine when he addresses the troops on Red Square.

“They have nothing to celebrate tomorrow,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, told CNN. “They have not succeeded in defeating the Ukrainians. They have not succeeded in dividing the world or dividing Nato. And they have only succeeded in isolating themselves internationally and becoming a pariah state around the globe.”

Russian forces struggled to complete their takeover of Mariupol, which has been largely reduced to rubble. The sprawling seaside steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were making what appeared to be their last stand was the only part of the city not under Russian control.