On August 18, 2025, Russian drones and missiles damaged buildings at Sumy State University.

Photos show severe damage to university buildings, including classrooms, laboratories, and an academic library. The library director, Olha Krystka, reported that at least 15,000 books were destroyed. There were no reported deaths or injuries on campus.

This incident came five months after the university sustained damage in another Russian air strike (see report).

Scholars at Risk is concerned about military forces targeting higher education facilities in armed conflict. Parties to a conflict may only attack legitimate military targets; where a party suspects that a civilian facility — such as a university building — is being used for military purposes, that party has a duty to take every action practicable to verify that this suspicion is correct before initiating an attack. In the event of such an attack, parties must take all practicable precautions to avoid or minimize damage to civilian facilities. Further, parties must refrain from launching attacks which may be expected to cause disproportionate damage to civilian facilities.

Sources:
https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-europe-politics-2025-8-russia-attacks-ukrainian-campus-amid-meetings-of-national-leaders/
https://united24media.com/latest-news/russias-attacks-destroys-60000-books-at-sumy-state-university-library-10936