On the night of 21/22 May 2026 a Ukrainian drone attack targeted Staroblisk College Dormitory in the Luhansk killing over 21 girls and injuring another 40. This followed up an air strike by the US on the first day of Iran War that killed over 170 young girls in Iran. Dr Muhammad Ali Ehsan interviewedthe Honorable Russian Consul General in the Russian Consulate Karachi, Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov on Friday, 29 May 2026 and asked him questions related to the rising civilian casualties in the modern warfare.
Question 1
In modern warfare, wars are being fought in cities with drones, missiles, and long-range precision weapons. This brings the civilian infrastructure and civilians directly ‘in the line of fire’. The recent attack on the Staroblisk college dormitory confirms this pattern. Don’t you think modern warfare has made the attribution and legality of attack very controversial and contested, and do you see any chance of noncombatants not paying a heavier price than combatants in future wars?
Answer:
First of all, I would like to thank you for such a pinpoint observation and a great analysis of the current situation. However, one thing I should argue with is that the involvement of civilians is a specific feature of modern warfare. Unfortunately, noncombatants have suffered during almost every conflict in the history of mankind one way or another. The only difference has been the level of desire to minimize the deaths of innocent people, and the attitude towards such horrible events. In this context, the Starobelsk attack is just another example of the cynicism of Zelensky junta and the hypocrisy of his Western puppet masters.
At the same time when Russian soldiers try to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible, Ukraine, on the other hand, while suffering defeat on the battlefield, is now opening a new chapter in this armed conflict – by unleashing open, inhumane terror against defenseless children. The Kiev Regime and its handlers are taking full responsibility for the escalation of hostilities and for undermining political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. And all of this is happening against the backdrop of Kiev’s hypocritical wailing about the fate of children affected by the war. Now the entire world has seen just how cynical the Zelensky regime really is, targeting children for terror.
Question 2
The intertwining of military assets and civilian infrastructure sometimes becomes unavoidable in Urban Warfare. In your opinion, when a huge collateral civilian damage results, shouldn’t such an attack be termed as an act of terrorism and an illegitimate military act?
Answer:
Russian Foreign Ministry in its statement called the Starobelsk strike a bloody terrorist attack. It was specifically emphasized that this attack cannot have been accidental. It was a targeted strike against civilians – straight out of the German Nazi playbook. No one in that building was involved in hostilities, nor could they have been. There are no military facilities anywhere near the college.
Furthermore, these strikes use long-range weapons supplied to the Kiev regime by NATO countries, including drones, and are being carried out with the technical assistance of foreign specialists from well-known NATO member states. We have reliable information that Western capitals are feeding intelligence to the Ukrainian armed forces and helping with targeting.
Question 3
The world was not silent, but it could not stop Israel from inflicting catastrophic levels of death, displacement, hunger, and infrastructural destruction in Gaza. Don’t you think the way war was fought in Gaza has emboldened states like Ukraine to undertake strikes like the one in Starobilsk and feel certain that they will not be held accountable?
Answer :
Accountability and the inevitability of punishment are the cornerstones of any legal system which serve as a mechanism of crime prevention. This means that if you continuously ignore blatant violations of the international law, try to subvert the whole system based on the principles of the UN Charter, change them with some vague and arbitrary “rules” and apply double standards for the sake of your selfish short-term interest, it will let of the leash such malevolent actors like Zelensky, and the number of such incidents as Starobelsk strike will unfortunately only continue to increase. That is also why Western countries are responsible for the escalation of hostilities not only in Ukraine, but in the whole world, including Gaza.
Question 4
How would you explain the Russian response to the Ukrainian attack on innocent civilians (mostly young girls) at the college dormitory at Staroblisk?
Answer:
Russian Foreign Ministry announced the response to this barbaric attack in another statement. It was underscored that Zelensky junta and its Western sponsors supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons for committing crimes against our people have shown to the whole world their rude disdain for the norms of international humanitarian law. This has exhausted Russia’s patience and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have launched consistent and systemic strikes at enterprises of the Ukrainian defence industry in Kiev, including specific facilities for designing, manufacturing and programming drones and preparing them for operation. The Kiev regime uses these drones with the assistance of NATO specialists who supply components, provide reconnaissance and target acquisition data. The strikes targeted decision-making centers and command posts.
Due to the fact that the above-mentioned facilities are scattered across Kiev, Russian Foreign Ministry notified foreign citizens, including the personnel of diplomatic missions and international organizations of the need to leave the city as soon as possible, while urging residents of the Ukrainian capital not to approach facilities of the military and administrative infrastructure of the Zelensky regime.
Question 5
Can you please specify what Russia is doing as a great power to mitigate the threat posed to civilians and prevent the acceptance of the idea of civilian casualties as collateral damage, not just in the war it fights with Ukraine, but as a responsible great power at the global level?
Answer:
First of all, Russia rejects the notion of treating civilian deaths as “collateral damage”. I would like to remind you that this cynical term was coined and popularized by Americans during Vietnam War when they burned down the whole villages using napalm strikes. In contrast, my country as a great and responsible power has consistently defended the international law based on the UN Charter and Geneva conventions, while adhering itself to the principles outlined in these documents.
Secondly, the protection of civilian people in Donbass from Kiev Regime is one of the main goals of the special military operation. As it was stated by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the United Nations Mr. Vassily Nebenzia during his recent address at a UNSC Briefing, had Russia not launched its special military operation in Ukraine, tragedies like the one in Starobelsk would have occurred every day. Moreover, for eight long years – up until 2022 – such deliberate strikes targeting civilians in Donbass were indeed conducted on a virtually daily basis. The media outlets, which are entirely controlled by the Kiev regime’s Western handlers, simply ignored these countless human casualties. Russian and Russian-speaking residents were mercilessly persecuted, and they were treated as “second-class” citizens. And the so-called “leaders” of the Western world did everything possible to ensure that the public in their countries remained in the dark about the atrocities perpetrated by the radicals who had seized power in Ukraine.
