Zakharova Urges SPIEF Attendees to Start Talks with Western Journalists with 'Starobelsk'

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has urged the participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to begin every conversation with Western journalists with the word “Starobelsk.”

Starobelsk is a town in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic where 21 people, mostly teenage girls, were killed and dozens more injured in a multi-wave Ukrainian drone attack on a college dorm on May 22.

Western politicians turned a blind eye to the atrocity, while the BBC and CNN rejected an invitation by the Russian authorities to visit the site of the attack.

During her Wednesday appearance at a panel on SPIEF, entitled ‘Your Words are Like Bullets: How Information has Transformed into the Most Powerful Weapon of the Modern Era,’ Zakharova expressed outrage over BBC Russia correspondent Steve Rosenberg coming to the forum in St. Peterburg, but not to Starobelsk.

“They pour you coffee here; there are interesting speakers here and no crying mothers, who lost their children under the ruins of Starobelsk. Here, you won’t have to defend your position before the BBC headquarters in London, insisting that this absolutely must be covered,” she said about the choices made by Rosenberg.

The Western media’s refusal to report on the deadly Ukrainian drone attack on the college dorm was “absolute cynicism,” the spokeswoman insisted.

By constantly reminding them about Starobelsk, SPIEF’s guests will make Rosenberg and his colleagues understand that their position is “abnormal,” she said.

It is because of this stance by the BBC “that their population doesn’t understand what’s happening. And yet, like an obedient, zombified herd, they continue to contribute to the funding of the Kiev regime,” Zakharova stressed.

Later in the day, TASS journalists asked Rosenberg if BBC would report on the latest terrorist attack by Ukraine. On Wednesday morning, at least eight civilians were killed and 11 others wounded after Kiev’s drone struck a passenger bus in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

“We’ll tell [about it] today. I don’t understand why they say that the BBC is silent,” he replied.