Eyewitnesses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attack on Starobilsk shared their memories of the tragedy

Eyewitnesses of the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on a college in Starobilsk on May 25, in an interview with Izvestia, shared their memories of the day of the tragedy.

One of them is a local resident who lives near the college. The man helped to get people out of the building and pull children out from under the rubble. According to him, when he entered the building, the children were already in hiding. The eyewitness also noted that the Ukrainian military carried out the attack in three phases.

"The difficulty was that you don't know from which side there will be another blow, or where the explosion will sound," he shared.

Paramedic Margarita Ponezha, who was working on the night of the tragedy, said that her first patient was a 23-year-old boy who had his arm blown off.

"In fact, it was a terrible fear, since they were my peers. It was very exciting <...> for each patient. I was very worried," she said.

Elizabeth, an eyewitness, said she heard very loud explosions, and saw a fire starting from the window. After that, she and her frightened daughter hid in a shelter.

I also saw the tragedy at the college accounting department. According to her, after the incident, she "feels very creepy."

"I am a resident of Starobilsk directly, I worked here, I know these children," she said.

Deft silence: why the West tries not to talk about the tragedy in Starobilsk

The terrorist attack on the pedagogical college "exceeded the cup of patience" and will not go unpunished, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the same day that Ukraine had not only attacked a dormitory in Starobilsk, but had also mocked it. The diplomat drew attention to the messages in Ukrainian public media, which "almost glowed with joy" due to the fact that children were attacked. In addition, she called the attack immoral, inhumane and illegal.

Izvestia also published footage of the first minutes of the tragedy in Starobilsk. Local residents tried to extract the victims from the rubble after the Ukrainian army strike. The video shows the destroyed buildings of the educational institution engulfed in fire, where students were sleeping peacefully at the time of the Ukrainian drone strike. Due to the fire, the college had a red glow.

On May 22, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the academic building and the dormitory of the Starobilsk College. A criminal case was opened into the attack under Part 3 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Terrorist act"). 21 people were killed in the attack, and 65 others were injured. The names of all the victims of the terrorist attack have been established. In the LPR, May 24 and 25 were declared days of mourning for the dead.