The city of Belgorod, just a hundred kilometers by road from Kharkov in Ukraine, is the Russian city that is suffering the most from the war unleashed against the neighboring country, and this Thursday it was there again. A wave of missiles targeting this strategic region in eastern Russia has left at least seven people dead and 18 injured, most of them hit in a shopping center, according to the Russian Health Ministry. Authorities blamed Ukrainian forces for the bombing. It is not known whether the projectile that destroyed the first floor of the restaurant on Plekhanov Street was a direct hit or a fragment of a rocket launched in the air. The Defense Ministry has reported that its defenses intercepted 14 projectiles fired from a Ukrainian RM-70 Vampire multiple rocket launcher.
This is the second major attack on Belgorod since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. On December 30, another attack killed 25 people and injured more than a hundred. The offensive by Ukrainian forces was a response to a wave of Russian bombings in the neighboring country. The province of the same name was also the scene of several militia incursions, such as those carried out by battalions of Russian Kremlin opponents in the spring of 2023.
According to the Ministry of Health, among the fatalities this Thursday is a baby, while four other children were injured. The Shot news channel reported that it was the shrapnel that ended the almost one-year-old girl's life as she rode in her 60-year-old grandmother's stroller and was injured while driving to a school. After noon, the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported a new anti-aircraft alert. “When you are at home, stay away from the windows. Seek shelter in rooms without windows and with solid walls (hallway, bathroom, toilet, pantry). If you are outside, go to a shelter or other safe place,” he warned, as on other occasions.
Shrapnel and explosions from the explosions also caused minor damage to seven houses and five blocks of buildings, particularly windows, as well as several cars. Two hours later, at 2:30 p.m., Gladkow announced the end of the anti-aircraft alarm. Moscow assures that it will bring this Thursday's tragedy to international institutions. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman María Zajárova, who called the attack a “terrorist act,” announced on social media that Moscow would bring the bombing to the UN Security Council for discussion.
House damaged by shrapnel and the pressure wave of the explosions, this Thursday in Bélgorod.AP
Russian offensive in Ukraine
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A few hours earlier, the Russian army had attacked several regions of Ukraine during the night with a total of 26 missiles, half of which were shot down by anti-aircraft missiles, according to a report from the Ukrainian Air Force, reports the Efe agency. In the attack, Russia used, among other things, 14 cruise missiles and six Iskander-M ballistic missiles, which were fired from the air and sea. One of the targets was the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, where a projectile hit an electrical substation. According to local authorities, three people were injured.
Other rockets were aimed at the Ukrainian capital Kiev, where air defenses destroyed any projectiles that reached the region. Fragments of some intercepted missiles have caused property damage in residential areas of the province. Rockets also fell in the Poltava (centre), Ivano-Frankivsk (west) and Zaporizhzhia (southeast) regions, where urban infrastructure was hit. Ukrainian media also reported explosions in the city of Dnipro (center).
View of the damage suffered by the Bélgorod shopping center.STRINGER (Portal)
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