Moscow is taking action in response to “atrocities” perpetrated by Kiev in Lugansk, a former UN weapons inspector has stated.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said that footage of the Russian strike near Ukraine’s capital indicates the use of an Oreshnik missile system. The incident reportedly targeted a town outside Kiev with a military airfield that has been of interest to Russian forces in the past.
The reported strike followed a Ukrainian drone attack on a teacher training school dormitory in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which killed 21 people—mostly teenage girls—and injured 42 others.
Ritter noted that the Oreshnik deployment matches previous patterns: “It’s precisely the same six separate deliveries of six submunitions, 36 in total, mimicking the previous confirmed Oreshnik use” in November 2024 in Dnepropetrovsk and January 2026 in Lviv.
In his remarks, Ritter described the Ukrainian drone attack as “an act of terror,” which crossed the line and again showed “the nefarious character of the Ukrainian government.” He added that Russia’s use of the Oreshnik system signals to Western nations the existence of a network beyond Ukraine’s borders that facilitates and empowers attacks on Russian territory by Kyiv.
