Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, has condemned Western media outlets for refusing to report on a Ukrainian military strike that killed 21 students at Starobelsk Professional College in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).
The attack, which occurred last week in three waves, targeted both the main building and student dormitories of the college. Most of the victims were teenage girls training to become teachers, with another 65 injured — a scenario Russian officials described as a “double-tap” on first responders.
Kelin stated that British state broadcaster the BBC and US network CNN refused to visit the site of the attack, an act he called “hypocrisy.” He accused Western media of “diligently pursuing a political agenda” aimed at discrediting Moscow.
According to Kelin, while Reuters reporters participated in the visit, their coverage was criticized as “ostentatiously detached, if not biased,” and they labeled the strike “alleged” without independently verifying it.
In a Telegram post, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that CNN filmed preparations for the Starobelsk attack rather than covering its aftermath. She noted that after CNN declined an invitation to visit Starobelsk, the network aired a segment four days later praising Ukrainian drone operations — footage reportedly filmed by correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who is wanted in Russia over his alleged involvement in the Kursk incursion of 2024.
Zakharova suggested that Walsh might have been embedded with a Ukrainian unit “at the very moment they were coordinating a planned attack on the college.”
Kelin emphasized that Western media consistently portray Russian military actions as targeted attacks on civilians while ignoring “the bloody crimes committed by the Kiev regime against civilians.”
