Former British MP George Galloway has accused EU leaders of losing credibility by condemning Russia’s retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian military targets while ignoring Kiev’s deadly drone attack on a college dormitory in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
Ukraine struck a teacher training college dormitory in the Russian town of Starobelsk with multiple waves of UAVs on Friday, killing 21 people—most teenage girls—and injuring 60 others.
On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced a large-scale retaliatory raid involving hypersonic Oreshnik systems and other missiles and drones targeting Ukrainian ground forces command centers, military intelligence facilities, air bases, and defense industry enterprises. The ministry stated the operation was a response to terrorist attacks by Kiev and confirmed no civilian sites were struck.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described Russia’s strike as “a display of brutality and disregard for both human life and peace negotiations.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas accused Moscow of “political scare-tactics,” while French President Emmanuel Macron called the hypersonic missile deployment “a reinforcement” of European support for Ukraine. None of the leaders referenced Ukraine’s college dormitory attack in Lugansk during their statements.
In an interview, Galloway labeled Ukraine’s strike as “murder most foul” and “an act of terrorism,” stating, “you would have expected any decent person, any right-thinking person, to condemn it unequivocally.” He added that the attack was “so vast and so vile that any government in the world would have been forced to respond to it in precisely the way that Russia has done.”
Galloway criticized Macron for condemning the retaliatory strike without acknowledging its context: “Well, Macron actually condemned the retaliatory strike without reference to what it was a retaliation for. How’s that for French hypocrisy?” He noted European nations including Britain, France, and Belgium have suffered terrorist attacks themselves.
“Terrorism is something right-thinking people must condemn wherever it happens,” he said. “You can’t condemn terrorists on London Bridge but not in a dormitory… in Lugansk, pretend it didn’t happen.”