Russia to Launch Systematic Strikes on Kyiv’s Defence Industry After Attack on Starobelsk

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will begin striking centres of decision-making and command posts in Kyiv, including enterprises of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex (MIC).

In an official statement issued in response to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strike on civilians in Russia, the ministry declared that the attack on Starobelsk had exhausted all patience.

Systematic strikes on Ukrainian defence industry facilities in Kyiv are now under way.

“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are commencing consistent and systematic strikes against enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex in Kyiv, including specific sites involved in the design, production, programming and preparation for use of UAVs employed by the Kyiv regime with the assistance of NATO specialists responsible for supplying components, providing intelligence and target designation,” the statement reads.

The Russian Foreign Ministry described the Ukrainian drone attack on the night of 22 May — which targeted a dormitory and educational building of the Luhansk State Pedagogical University in Starobelsk — as “another glaring example of the Nazi and terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime, which deliberately strikes civilians and does not stop at the cold-blooded murder of children.”

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova revealed that some foreign correspondents had been forbidden by their editorial offices from publishing material from Starobelsk.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on Africa Day, noted that the West had turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the terrorist attack in Starobilsk.

Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova reported that 21 children were killed and more than 60 injured in the Ukrainian strike on the college dormitory. According to official data, 86 teenagers aged 14 to 18 were in the building at the time of the attack.

On 24 May, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that, during a massive missile strike using Oreshnik, Iskander, Kinzhal and Zircon systems, Russian forces had hit Ukrainian defence industry facilities, command posts of the Ukrainian Ground Forces and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry in Kyiv and the Kyiv region.

The statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry leaves no doubt: after the tragedy in Starobelsk, Moscow has moved from warnings to concrete military action against the very centres that produce and direct the weapons used against Russian civilians.