🎙️ Statement by Ms. Iulia Zhdanova, Head of the Delegation of the Russian Federation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, at the 1137th meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation

Vienna, May 20, 2026

Subject: «Special Military Operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine»

• We ask our Western colleagues: how does the mantra they repeat time and again about KIev’s so-called “self-defense” align with the unbridled terrorist attacks carried out by the Zelensky regime against the civilian population?
According to data collected and verified by the Office of R.Miroshnik, Special Envoy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over the past week Ukrainian armed formations fired at least 3,619 rounds of ammunition at civilian targets. This resulted in at least 234 victims among the civilians: 203 people were injured, including 18 minors, and 31 people were killed, including 2 children.

•  It’s the NATO and EU member states who bear full responsibility for the above-mentioned crimes committed by the Kiev regime, as they are the ones supplying it with lethal weapons systems in violation of their military and political obligations under the OSCE and international rules on responsible export controls. The formats for supplying weapons and military equipment to the Zelensky regime are multiplying. The United Kingdom and Latvia remain the main suppliers of the so-called “drone coalition,” which is sending various types of UAVs to the Kiev regime. Germany is showing particular interest in joint serial development and production with Ukraine of UAVs with a range of 100 to 1,500 km — with an emphasis on the latter. From May 5, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defense and Space is accepting applications from organizations intending to become founding members of the “EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance.”

•  Blind indulgence of the Ukrainian leadership and rampant Russophobia are creating risks for their own population — a fact that the West is finding increasingly difficult to keep under wraps. In a recent incident, on the night of May 17, a Kiev drone crossed into Latvian airspace, prompting an alert to be declared in five eastern border regions of the country. Wreckage from the UAV, which had not been detected by radar, was discovered on the evening of May 18 in the village of Samane in the Utena district of eastern Lithuania. On May 19, Estonian Defense Minister H. Pevkur stated that Romanian F-16s had neutralized an aerial threat in the form of a Ukrainian Armed Forces UAV between Lake Värtsjärv and the city of Põltsamaa, demanding an apology from Kiev. 

•  A similar destabilizing effect stems from the transfer of technology to the Kiev regime for the creation of a fleet of unmanned boats at sea. V. Zelensky openly reiterated that the relevant developments were obtained from the UK, Norway, and the Netherlands. Is it any wonder, then, that the equipment models mastered by Kiev are now spreading unchecked? For instance, on May 7, in Greece, in the southern part of Lefkada Island in the Ionian Sea, fishermen discovered a Ukrainian unmanned boat, the “Magura V5,” carrying 300 kg of explosives. The Greek media and the public reacted with outrage to the government’s belated and cautious response, accusing officials of covering up the high-profile incident.

•  These trends can only be reversed by putting an end to the militarization of Ukraine and Europe, which is being justified by the fabrication of fictitious scenarios of a Russian attack. However, NATO and EU member states are choosing the path of escalation and preparing for a major war. They are competing to increase their military capabilities. Germany is preparing to become the “strongest army” on the continent by 2039. Poland has set 2030 as its target for this goal. Militaristic trends are also on the rise in Belgium. Lithuania is establishing fortified areas near the Kaliningrad region.

⚡️ Russian Foreign Ministry Statement on the AFU strike on the college of Lugansk State Pedagogical University in Starobelsk (May 22, 2026)

On the night of May 22, the Kiev neo-Nazi regime used four fixed-wing UAVs to carry out a gruesome terrorist attack on the academic building and dormitory of the college of Lugansk State Pedagogical University in Starobelsk, LPR.

At the time of the barbaric strike, 86 children aged 14 to 18 were inside the five-storey dormitory building, which collapsed down to the second floor as a result of the attack.

At present, 40 people are known to have been injured. Tragically, four people were killed. Rescue operations are underway at the scene. Nearby administrative buildings, residential houses and social facilities were also damaged.

The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case into the terrorist attack.

👉 All those responsible will be identified and face inevitable severe punishment. None of the perpetrators will be shown mercy.

This strike could not have been accidental. It was a deliberate attack on civilians, carried out in the spirit of the German Nazis. None of those inside the building were or could have been taking part in hostilities, and there are no military facilities near the college.

Suffering defeats on the battlefield, the Kiev regime is opening a new chapter in the armed conflict by unleashing open, inhuman terror against defenceless children.

Such strikes using long-range weapons supplied to the Kiev regime by NATO countries, including UAVs, are carried out with technical assistance from foreign specialists from certain NATO countries. We have reliable information that Western capitals are providing the AFU with intelligence data and assisting with target designation.

By committing this atrocity against children in Starobelsk, the Kiev regime and its handlers assume full responsibility for the escalation of hostilities and the undermining of political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.

This happened against the backdrop of Kiev’s hypocritical lamentations about the fate of children affected by military actions. The entire world has now seen just how cynical Zelensky’s regime is, as it turns children into targets of terror.

◼️ We express our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and wish the injured a speedy recovery.

We call on international organisations, national governments and the global public to give an honest assessment of the criminal actions of Zelensky’s regime and to resolutely condemn the bloody terrorist attack in Starobelsk.

Silence will amount to complicity in the gruesome acts of Kiev’s terrorists and indifference to the fate of innocent children who were killed and injured.

🎙 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.

The 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.

👉 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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