Russian Embassy in India

🎙 Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's statement on Ukrainian attacks against the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant on May 30-31 (June 1, 2026)

💬 Kiev no longer even seems to be trying to hide its criminal, terrorist nature.

On May 30, the Ukrainian armed forces used a UAV to attack the turbine hall of Unit 6 at the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant ( ), and on May 31 – the plant’s transport workshop.

☝️ It was only by a miracle that casualties and critical damage to ZNPP infrastructure were avoided.

These reckless actions once again clearly demonstrate that the Ukrainian armed forces are ready to resort to the most desperate steps, including those aimed at undermining the nuclear safety and security of Europe’s largest NPP.

We are convinced that Kiev, as well as its American and European handlers, are fully aware of the catastrophic consequences such provocations could have for the entire world. Yet this is far from the first time the Kiev regime has shown utter disregard for human lives.

The primary responsibility for what is happening lies precisely with Ukraine’s Western puppeteers, who continue to pump Kiev with more and more batches and types of weapons. We hope that even in the West they will eventually realise that, by striking nuclear facilities with supplied weapons, Kiev is acting with the recklessness of an “ape with a grenade“, creating threats for its own sponsors as well.

We expect the IAEA Secretariat and personally Director General Rafael Grossi to give Kiev’s actions a fair and deserved assessment.

The threats deliberately created by the Zelensky regime, which, in its anti-Russian frenzy, is directly targeting a Russian NPP, cannot be ignored.

The IAEA leadership will have to call things by their proper names. Otherwise, all its appeals to ensure an appropriate level of nuclear safety and security, as well as compliance with any “principles” and “points” declared by Rafael Grossi, will lose any basis.

❗️ For our part, we will continue to do everything possible to maintain the safe operation of the ZNPP.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 On June 1, International Children's Day, the Russian Embassy in donated a unique collection of traditional Russian toys to the future World Toy Museum in New .

The Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, India's Ministry of Culture, jointly with the Toybank, are creating the first museum of its kind in India — an interactive space where children will be able to discover the cultures and traditions of different peoples around the world through play.

The diplomats presented the collection to the visionary behind the future Museum — former Union Minister, Member of Parliament, and Vice Chairman of Gandhi Smriti Vijay Goel. The donation included matryoshka dolls depicting characters from Russian fairy tales, a roly-poly doll, ceramic fairy-tale figures painted in the traditional Gzhel style, handmade motanka dolls specially created for the Ьuseum, and a wooden doll containing a music box.

🎙 On Thursday, June 4, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will hold her weekly briefing on current foreign policy issues in St Petersburg on the sidelines of the 29th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

🕙 10:00 am MSK
🕖 7:00 am GMT
🕗 8:00 am CET
🕒 3:00 pm CST

For accreditation inquiries, please contact the MFA Press Centre. Accredited journalists will receive details on the technical aspects of submitting questions.

The Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman will answer media questions received by the call centre.

❗️ Accreditation is open until June 2, 12:00 pm MSK

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🇷🇺 Russia's High Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova:

💬 Today, we mark International Children’s Day – a holiday that reminds us of every child’s right to a happy childhood, development and safety.

This day is already more than a century old, and over sixty countries around the world have joined this initiative. Yet there are also those who have begun to abandon this date – shifting it to other days, rewriting its history and distorting the very meaning of the holiday.

Last year, Zelensky shifted the holiday to another date in order to conform to “Western standards”. This year, on the eve of this date, a terrible tragedy took place in Starobelsk – one that crossed out the most fundamental human right: the right to life.

Ukrainian militants deliberately struck children who were asleep in their beds. 86 people sustained injuries, 21 children were killed.

Most of them were girls: Anya, Taisiya, Alina, Elena, Sofia, Darya, Alexandra, Tatyana, Oksana, Yana, Veronika, Anastasia, Victoria, Irina, Alisa and many others.

Unfortunately, the international community’s position on this issue remains ambiguous. Many prefer to keep silent or pretend that nothing happened, ignoring the obvious facts of the crime.

❗️ Our task is to preserve the truth and achieve justice. Impunity for such war crimes is unacceptable.

Do you know why it is important to mark Children’s Protection Day? Precisely because humanity must remember: protecting children’s rights is our shared priority and sacred duty.

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💬 Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

June 1 marks International Children’s Day.

For Russia, protecting children is a key domestic and foreign policy priority. We proceed from the understanding that the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the “gold standard” in this field. Over the three decades of its existence, it has not lost its relevance. It is thanks to this document that care for minors is regarded as one of the most important tasks for any state.

At the same time, despite the progress achieved globally, grave challenges and appalling problems persist in this area: hunger, lack of access to healthcare, violence and conflicts, and terrorist attacks against children.

Children’s issues are being heavily politicised, double standards are being promoted, and certain countries are unscrupulously exploiting the emotional nature of this undoubtedly sensitive matter to spread lies, slander and disinformation against other states.

The most telling example of such approaches is, of course, the story of the so-called “abducted Ukrainian children”. Let me recall: the Kiev regime invented a story alleging that Russia had abducted them. For years, it has fanatically replicated this myth on every international platform. And those platforms have been only too happy to listen – without bothering to verify the facts.

At the same time, they cynically ignore the fact that our country, acting on instructions from its leadership, has been working to reunite children with their families since the very beginning of the special military operation.

As of today, 30 children from 22 families have returned to Russia from Ukraine, while 141 minors from 114 families have been reunited with their parents or relatives living in Ukraine and other countries.



Zelensky’s Western handlers prefer to ignore the fact that the war unleashed by the Kiev regime against the people of Donbass in 2014 has taken its heaviest toll on children.

From 2014 to February 2022, at least 129 children were killed and more than 500 wounded in the LPR and DPR. The youngest victim of Ukrainian aggression was only 27 days old.

◼️ Let me also recall the most egregious cases of the past three years 👇

• The attack on central Belgorod on December 30, 2023, ahead of the holidays, when shelling of a New Year fairground, Christmas tree and skating rink killed 25 people, including 5 children, and wounded more than 100 civilians.

• Comparable in its deliberate cruelty was the ATACMS missile strike on Uchkuyevka city beach in Sevastopol on June 23, 2024, where many families were spending their Sunday afternoon. A total of 153 civilians were injured, including 27 children. Four people were killed, among them two children aged two and nine.

• On the night of December 31, 2025 to January 1, 2026, the Ukrainian militants launched a targeted drone strike on a café and hotel in the village of Khorly, Kherson Region, where civilians had gathered to celebrate the New Year. 29 people were killed, including two children.

• On May 22, the Ukrainian militants attacked the academic building and dormitory of Starobelsk College in the LPR at night. More than 80 people sustained injuries of varying severity, 21 were killed. All of them were ordinary students.

The Kiev regime is targeting children in Russia through phone calls and messages – seeking to deceive them and cause harm by exploiting their trust and lack of understanding of the legal consequences of their actions.

There is also a system for recruiting schoolchildren via social media: children are offered money and manipulated into gathering information. There is evidence that Ukraine is using the internet to draw children into games that may have fatal consequences.

Read in full: shorturl.at/06z1u

135 years ago, construction on the world’s longest railway began.

The Trans-Siberian Railway between and connects the European part of with the Far East. It spans 9,288,000 kilometers – that's six days by train.

Construction of the Great Siberian Route, as the railway was then known, officially began on May 31, 1891. During a ceremonial event near Vladivostok, the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich (the future Nicholas II), dumped the first wheelbarrow of earth onto the roadbed.

Construction was carried out across a vast expanse: from Chelyabinsk on the slopes of the Ural Mountains to the Pacific coast. Construction proceeded simultaneously from both ends – west and east.

The route had to be laid in harsh, natural and climatic conditions, through sparsely populated or deserted terrain, impassable taiga, wide rivers, swamps and permafrost. At various times, between 5,000 and 90,000 people worked on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Sections of the railway were put into operation in stages and the project was fully completed in 1916. The Great Siberian Route connected with the railway network of the European part of Russia and, until the collapse of the empire, it was possible to reach Vladivostok from the then capital, Petrograd (now St. Petersburg). Today, however, the starting point of the Trans-Siberian Railway is located in Moscow.

📸: Sputnik

🇷🇺🇮🇳 On May 27, Counsellor of the Russian Embassy in Yulia Aryaeva held a meeting with Elena and Svetlana Ashikova, founders of the Art Trip School and the Semitsvetik creative club in Troitsk, Region, following their latest cultural expedition through the Indian Himalayas.

Working in schools across Ladakh, the Kullu Valley and the small mountain village of Naggar — once home to the remarkable Roerich family — the Russian volunteers led art workshops and introduced local children to Russian culture through painting, storytelling and shared creativity.

Many of the Himalayan school students now dream of visiting Russia for themselves. Back in Troitsk, children from the Semitsvetik club are already preparing for their own journey to India, inspired by stories of the landscapes that shaped Roerich’s world.

🇷🇺🇮🇳 First Deputy Chairman of the Government of Denis Manturov and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ajit Doval visited the Joint Information Centre of Roscosmos at the Valentina Tereshkova National Space Centre.

The Centre has been established to monitor and analyze large volumes of data related to the rocket and space industry. It will also serve as a future control centre for the Russian Orbital Station.

🚀 Prior to visiting the Centre, the guests toured an exhibition of space technology. Among the exhibits presented were models of the world’s most powerful four-chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine, the base module of the Russian Orbital Station, and other advanced space industry developments.

During the visit, Denis Manturov and Ajit Doval also participated in a live communication session with members of the Russian crew aboard the International Space Station — Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Andrey Fedyaev, and Sergey Mikaev. The cosmonauts elaborated on their recent spacewalk conducted the previous day and shared details of their work in orbit.