🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin's statement on the terrorist attack by the Kiev regime on the Starobelsk Pedagogical College (May 22, 2026)The statement was made during President of Russia Vladimir Putin’s meeting with graduates of the first cohort of the Time of Heroes educational programme.💬 On May 22, the neo-Nazi regime that seized power in Kiev carried out
a terrorist attack on the student dormitory of
the Starobelsk Pedagogical College. At night, while the students were asleep.
According to the reports I have been receiving throughout this time, as of now,
six people have been killed, 39 injured, and 15 are listed as missing, as debris removal continues. We will, of course, do everything to help the victims and the families of those killed.
I want to stress – this is important –
that there are no military facilities, no intelligence or related service facilities near the dormitory. Therefore, there are no grounds whatsoever to claim that the projectiles hit the building as a result of our air defence or electronic warfare systems. No one can say that they were trying to strike some other facility, while the UAVs were allegedly intercepted by our own systems and accidentally hit this building.
☝️ The strike was not accidental: it came in three waves, with 16 UAVs hitting the same site.Of course,
we will investigate the details. The appropriate conclusions will be drawn. But it is clear to us – and once again becomes obvious – who we are dealing with, who we are fighting, and what we are fighting for. This is a manifestation of neo-Nazism.
It once again confirms the terrorist nature of the Kiev regime.
The reasons behind the Kiev regime’s criminal conduct are clear. Constant failures at the front, surrendering positions, populated areas and territories.
For the AFU, the situation at the front is gradually turning from difficult and critical into catastrophic. Neither Western aid – which is regularly stolen, they simply cannot resist stealing it – nor forced mobilisation helps, when people are rounded up in the streets like stray dogs and then thrown to the front. Against this backdrop, desertion is also growing catastrophically for the enemy. It is becoming large-scale.
T
he situation for the ruling clique is further aggravated by all-consuming corruption that is corroding society and is covered up by the regime’s ringleaders. In fact, they themselves are part of these corruption schemes, which is why they later help one another flee the country and escape to Israel and other countries abroad.
Everyone knows perfectly well – both in Ukraine and around the world –
that the Ukrainian authorities steal from absolutely everything. It has even reached military property and personal protective equipment intended for those very people who are driven to the front like cattle – driven to die for those who are plundering Ukraine and foreign aid.
The Kiev regime undoubtedly needs such crimes in order to divert attention from what is happening at the front and inside the country, to provoke a response from Russia, and then – as we know, and have seen many times before – to blame everything on us, on Russia, on our country: all escalations and all consequences of such crimes.
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Russia's Foreign Ministry has been instructed to inform international organisations and the international community about this crime.
But, of course, you and I understand that in such cases, MFA statements alone cannot suffice.
Therefore, Russia's Defence Ministry has been ordered to submit its proposals.◾️ I would now ask everyone to rise and honour the memory of those who were killed (a minute of silence).
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