Ukraine’s Envoy Melnyk Blasts Russia’s ‘Fake’ Starobilsk Narrative at UN
Ukraine’s UN envoy Andriy Melnyk accused Russia of inventing a false victimhood narrative over the alleged Starobilsk dormitory strike, saying Moscow’s own published list showed no children among the named victims. He also condemned Russia’s massive attack on Kyiv, warned Belarus against deeper invo
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Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Nations Andriy Melnyk tore into Russia’s “fake” propaganda narrative around the alleged Starobilsk dormitory strike, saying Moscow was exploiting children’s rights and UN institutions to justify its continuing war against Ukraine.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, Melnyk said Russia’s version of events was already “collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions,” pointing to Moscow’s repeated claims that Ukrainian forces deliberately targeted children in Russian-occupied Starobilsk.
“At last Friday’s emergency meeting, Mr. Nebenzya told this Council of, and I quote, ‘86 students aged 14 to 18,’ and repeatedly referred to ‘sleeping children,’ ‘minors,’ and the ‘deliberate killing of minors,’” Ambassador Melnyk said, referring to Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzya.
On May 22 Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of launching a drone strike on a student dormitory in Starobilsk, a Russian-controlled city in Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Ukraine denied targeting civilians and said it had struck an elite Russian drone command unit in the area.
Melnyk said the Russian representative repeatedly framed the alleged incident as an attack on children, even inviting UNICEF and the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to address the matter.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that Russia’s intensifying strikes on Ukraine risk pushing the war into a dangerous new phase. The UN rights office recorded a 21 percent rise in civilian casualties in the first four months of 2026.
But, he said, the Russian Foreign Ministry later published a list of 21 alleged victims by name and date of birth – a list Melnyk stressed had not been independently verified.
“Even according to the list we have seen, every single individual named was an adult. Remarkably, not a single one was a child,” Melnyk said.
“In other words, the same institution that sent the Russian representative to sit in this chamber has, through its own documentation – unverified, I must underline once again – refuted his central claim.”
Ambassador Melnyk said the episode exposed what he called Moscow’s willingness to “exploit children’s rights and misuse UN institutions in the service of its propaganda.”
He also cited what he described as another contradiction in Russia’s account. According to Melnyk, Nebenzya told the Security Council on May 22 that Ukraine had used “four fixed-wing drones,” but later told reporters on May 26 that “16 UAVs” had targeted the same location in three successive waves.
“So we see that the imaginary number of alleged drones suddenly quadrupled in four days,” Melnyk said.
‘A textbook example of cynical Russian propaganda’
Melnyk called the Starobilsk narrative “a textbook example of cynical Russian propaganda,” saying it was designed to portray Moscow as the alleged victim of a war it started.
“We are seeing yet another attempt by the Russian Federation, and by the broader machinery of Mr. Putin’s system of disinformation, to cynically invent and construct a new victimhood narrative through falsehoods, manipulations, and deliberate distortions,” he said.
He compared the Starobilsk claims to earlier Russian narratives about the 2014 Odesa Trade Union House tragedy and the alleged targeting of the “people of Donbas” by Ukrainian forces – narratives he said Moscow has repeatedly recycled to justify its aggression.
“This is not about the victims of war,” Melnyk said. “The sole responsibility for the victims of this war lies with one individual: Mr. Putin, and the military monster he commands.”
Ambassador Melnyk reiterated that Ukraine targets only legitimate military objectives and acts in accordance with international humanitarian law.
“We never target civilians,” he said.
Kyiv attack described as ‘true Armageddon’
Melnyk then turned to Russia’s recent massive attack on Kyiv, describing the overnight assault on May 23-24 as “a true Armageddon” for his native city.
“It was the most devastating assault the Ukrainian capital has endured since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” he said.
According to Melnyk, Russia used 54 cruise missiles, 32 ballistic missiles, including two Kinzhal air-launched missiles, three Zircon hypersonic missiles, and more than 600 attack drones, many of them Shahed-type drones.
He said more than 100 people were injured across Ukraine and at least four were killed.
“Waves of deadly Russian missiles and drones struck the city with a new and appalling level of brutality, leaving no doubt about Mr. Putin’s true intention: not military necessity, but maximum terror inflicted on a metropolis and on Ukraine’s peaceful citizens,” Melnyk said.
The Ukrainian diplomat said the attack carried personal pain because his own family lives in Kyiv.
“Thank God, my family survived that night of horror. But survival is not something Ukrainians can take for granted,” he said.
Kyiv homes, museums and schools hit in Russian attack
Melnyk said severe damage was reported across all districts of Kyiv, affecting residential buildings, cultural institutions, schools, markets, shopping centers, offices, warehouses, and historic landmarks.
According to Melnyk, 352 residential buildings were among the hardest hit, including high-rise apartment blocks and private homes that sustained fires, structural damage, or partial destruction.
He said an entire section of a residential building on Dehtiarivska Street was demolished from the first to the fifth floor. Friends of his family lived in that building, he said, adding that they survived but lost their apartment and all their possessions.
Melnyk also said the Chornobyl Museum was completely destroyed by a direct missile strike less than a month after reopening following reconstruction ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster.
‘Russian Bombs and Missiles Have No Eyes’
Melnyk rejected Moscow’s repeated claim that it does not target Ukraine’s civilian population, saying even Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov had openly undermined that argument.
In one recent broadcast, Melnyk said, Solovyov acknowledged that Russia carried out indiscriminate strikes against Kyiv and that its military command makes no distinction between military and civilian targets because “Russian bombs and missiles have no eyes.”
“For years, Mr. Putin has shamelessly lied that Russian troops strike only military objectives,” the Ukrainian diplomat said. “Yet now, even Russia’s own official propaganda machinery finally concedes that Russia kills indiscriminately.”
‘Decision-making centers’ – or tomatoes and cucumbers?
Melnyk also criticized Russian Foreign Ministry statements claiming that Moscow strikes only “decision-making centers” and “command posts.”
He pointed to the destruction of the Lukianivka fruit and vegetable market in Kyiv as an example of what Russian officials call military targets.
“So is Mr. Putin waging war against Ukrainian tomatoes? Or perhaps against our cucumbers and parsley?” Melnyk said.
$360 million wasted in one day
Melnyk said open-source calculations put the cost of Russia’s latest missile and drone attack on Kyiv at around $360 million.
He said that sum reflected only the weapons used during a seven-hour strike and could have financed around 35 modern schools or 12 fully equipped hospitals inside Russia.
He also said that, based on an average Russian pension of roughly $260 per month, the cost of the attack could have covered the annual pensions of 110,000 pensioners.
“But instead, Mr. Putin chose to invest $360 million into missiles launched in a single night against a European capital, destroying a vegetable market, a coffee shop – which, as we just heard, was reopened the next morning – and many other so-called ‘command centers’ in Kyiv,” Melnyk said.
The Ukrainian ambassador said Russia had deployed at least two Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads and used primarily as instruments of intimidation.
According to Melnyk, one reportedly lost course and fell in temporarily occupied Donetsk region, while another reached the area near Bila Tserkva, outside Kyiv, where it detonated in the air.
“And if one assumes that the intended target was the so-called ‘decision-making center,’ then the result of this precision strike, Mr. Nebenzya, was the destruction of a few old garages in a garage cooperative, as well as an old fence on the outskirts of Bila Tserkva,” Melnyk said.
Warning over Belarus
Melnyk also warned that Ukraine is closely monitoring Russia’s efforts to further involve Belarus in the war.
“The Lukashenko regime has effectively surrendered its sovereignty, allowing its territory, military infrastructure, and airspace to be used by Moscow,” he said.
He said Belarus was being pushed toward deeper involvement through mobilization measures, the deployment of advanced missile systems, and nuclear-related exercises, posing what he called a new threat not only to Ukraine but to European security.
“Ukraine hopes that Belarus will not launch an invasion from its territory,” Melnyk said. “But there should be no doubt: Ukraine will defend itself in strict accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.”
He warned that any attack from the north would trigger an immediate and decisive Ukrainian response and said the regime in Minsk would face “devastating consequences.”
Call for Tenfold Increase in Air Defense
Melnyk concluded by urging Ukraine’s European and American partners to multiply air-defense assistance “at least tenfold.”
“The alarming new scale of Russia’s aerial terror requires a response of an entirely different magnitude,” he said.
“We need to better protect the skies over our cities. We need to better protect and save civilian lives.”
He also urged UN member states to take stronger unilateral measures to deprive Russia’s war machine of its financial lifeline, saying every loophole in sanctions helps Moscow continue its attacks.
