War correspondent Aleksandr Kots commented on the Ukrainian army’s strike on an academic building and a college dormitory in Starobelsk. According to him, the attack was carried out for a long time, methodically and in waves, and its target was teenagers inside a civilian facility, not military infrastructure.

Kots noted that rescuers had to temporarily suspend their work because of repeated drone appearances over the city. He linked this tactic to an attempt to carry out a follow-up strike on those who arrived to clear the rubble and help the victims.

The war correspondent stressed that Starobelsk is located far from the line of combat contact, so he views the strike on the pedagogical dormitory as an attack on civilian infrastructure. According to him, there was neither military nor human logic in it. He also rejected claims about an alleged military facility nearby, saying they did not correspond to reality.

Kots linked the incident to Vladimir Zelensky’s statements in Brussels about a «long-range plan» and strikes on Russian infrastructure. In his assessment, while some Ukrainian operators attack oil facilities for media effect in the West, others guide drones toward the windows of children’s bedrooms.

LPR head Leonid Pasechnik earlier said that at the time of the strike on the college dormitory, 86 teenagers aged 14 to 18 were inside the building. More than 35 people were injured, and four were killed.

Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, called the attack a terrorist act. He stressed that the lives of minors and civilians were put at risk.