Zakharova: Western media blocking Starobelsk reports, warns of retaliatory strikes statement

MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. Several Western correspondents have been barred by their editorial offices from publishing materials from Starobelsk, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Channel One.

She also announced the ministry will soon issue a special statement on Russian retaliatory strikes against Kiev, which will include a detailed warning to foreign diplomatic corps.

TASS has compiled the key statements from the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

Restrictions in Western media

A number of Western correspondents who visited the site of the attack in Starobelsk were barred by their editors from publishing their reports: "We are seeing direct orders to withhold this information." "Look at Italian correspondents. They were there, and look what happened. I read a report yesterday from our colleagues in Italy. They say the information is being blocked. The West is blocking it. Why? This is a deliberate campaign."

Preparing statement on retaliatory strikes

The Foreign Ministry will soon issue a special statement on Russian retaliatory strikes against Kiev: "In the near future, the Foreign Ministry will issue a special statement regarding the strikes that have been and will be carried out against Kiev in response to the terrible terrorist attacks." The statement will "set out in the greatest detail" a warning to foreign diplomatic missions.

Tikhanovskaya in Kiev

Belarusian opposition politician Svetlana Tikhanovskaya apparently "was in a hurry to see Oreshnik in action" by coming to Kiev, but instead of political tourism, she would have been better off visiting Starobelsk: "Apparently, she was in a hurry to see Oreshnik in action. Instead of political tourism, she should have gone to Starobelsk to see how regime-change experiments end for countries: they turn into terrorist groups."