Firefighters extinguish flames after bomb attacks in Belgorod, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Ukrainian border
A bomb attack BelgorodLimit of Russia with the Ukraine, claimed at least 18 lives this Saturday the 30th, including children. “In Belgorod, the death toll rises to 18 and 111 people were injured,” the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said in the latest tally published on Saturday night via Telegram. Images published on the Internet show burning cars, buildings with broken windows and columns of black smoke in the city. This was one of the deadliest attacks on civilians on Russian territory. O Kremlin blames Ukraine for the events that took place a day after a largescale bombing by Russia on Ukrainian territory that killed at least 39 people. Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that enemy artillery had fired on the city center, which is home to around 330,000 people. He therefore recommended that the city's population move to emergency shelters and underground facilities provided for this purpose.
According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the affected buildings include regional government headquarters and university buildings as well as companies and residential buildings. Belgorod, which shares a 552kilometer border with Ukraine, has been the Russian region most affected by border incidents since the military conflict began in February 2022. On the orders of President Vladimir Putin, a brigade from the Ministry of Health led by the head of the folder traveled to the region. “This crime will not go unpunished. With this crime, the Kiev regime is trying to distract from the defeat at the front and provoke us to commit similar acts,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Ukraine regularly carries out attacks against Russia, especially in regions closer to its territory, but the number of victims is usually significantly lower. Due to the events, Russia asked the UN Security Council (United Nations) for a meeting to discuss the attack on its territory. The meeting will take place this Saturday at 4 p.m. in New York (6 p.m. in Brasília). They had already met on Friday to discuss the Russian attack on Ukraine, in which at least 39 people died. Ukrainian intelligence sources told the press that the events in Belgorod were a result of “unprofessional actions of the Russian air defense” and also “deliberate provocations.” “The Ukrainian Defense Forces are drawing up plans whose targets are precisely military infrastructure,” the source told the online newspaper Ukraínska Pravda. And they admit that today's attack on military targets on Russian territory is retaliation for Russia's “barbaric bombings” of several Ukrainian cities yesterday.
*With international agencies