KYIV: Shelling in the centre of the Russian border city of Belgorod killed 14 people and injured 108 others on Saturday, emergency services said. Russian officials accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack, which took place the day after an 18-hour aerial Russian barrage across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians.
Images of Belgorod on social media showed cars set alight and plumes of black smoke rising among damaged buildings as air raid sirens sounded. One strike hit close to a public ice rink in the very heart of the city.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to discuss the incident.
Earlier on Saturday, Moscow officials had reported shooting down 32 Ukrainian drones over the country’s Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol, and Kursk regions.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Russia’s largest air attack on Ukraine rose to 39 as rescuers continued to clear debris and rubble from the bombardment, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Russia launched 158 missiles and drones on cities and towns across Ukraine on Friday in what Ukrainian officials described as the worst aerial bombardment since the start of the war in February 2022. Zelenskiy said 39 people were killed and 159 injured in the strikes that involved different types of missiles and Iranian-made drones. Ukrainian air defence said it shot down 87 Russian missiles and over 30 drones.