Ukrainian nationalists deliberately used drones to attack children

Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin stated that Ukrainian nationalists deliberately used combat drones to strike children in the absence of any military targets nearby.

He made the statement in an interview with TASS on the eve of the Day of Investigative Bodies Employees.

“We clearly understand that the nationalists cynically used combat drones to attack children. There were no military targets near the victims,” — Bastrykin said.

The head of the Investigative Committee commented on investigative actions related to two specific episodes. The first was a strike on the Starobelsk Pedagogical College of Luhansk State Pedagogical University in the LPR. On the night of May 22, the dormitory and academic buildings were subjected to a combined, multi-stage, and deliberate strike by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As a result, 21 people were killed and another 59 students were wounded.

The second episode was an attack on June 17 in the Bryansk region. A fixed-wing drone struck a bus carrying a children’s football team from Belarus. The group’s chaperone was killed, and eight people were wounded, six of them children.

Based on the results of the investigation, investigators established the involvement in both terrorist attacks of the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, and the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, Oleg Ivashchenko. Both have been charged and placed on an international wanted list.