Moscow welcomes UN’s call for accountability for Starobilsk attack

Russia on Thursday welcomed a statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to investigate a strike on the city of Starobilsk in Ukraine's Luhansk region, currently under Russia's control, and hold those responsible accountable.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said it was “extremely important” that the tragedy was noticed and publicly condemned by one of the highest-ranking international officials in the field of human rights protection.

“This is a fundamentally important signal,” she said.

Lantratova said she traveled to Starobilsk immediately after the attack, publicly appealed to the international community and sent official letters to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the president of the UN Human Rights Council, the chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, urging them to assess the attack and support an objective investigation.

She also thanked foreign journalists who visited Starobilsk at the invitation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, saying they personally witnessed the aftermath of the strike and “were not afraid to tell the truth about what happened.”

Lantratova criticized what she described as silence from other international organizations and officials, expressing hope that following Turk’s statement, more international human rights bodies would publicly condemn a “barbaric terrorist attack against children.”

Ukraine's strike on a college in Starobilsk on the night of May 22 left 22 killed and more than 50 injured. All of the victims were students of the college.