Russia said it repelled a Ukrainian attack on the border region of Belgorod, where heavy bombings injured around 10 people on Thursday, authorities said, and forced many of its residents to flee.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian authorities had announced the death of three people in new Russian strikes on kyiv, targeted almost daily for more than a week.
Intensely bombarded for several days, the Russian region of Belgorod was the scene last week of a spectacular incursion by armed men from Ukraine, which raised questions about the solidity of the defense of the Russian border.
On Thursday, Moscow said that Ukrainian forces had tried to “invade” this region and carried out heavy strikes which injured a dozen people.
“Up to two companies of motorized infantry reinforced with tanks” attempted to “invade Russian territory” around 3 a.m. (8 p.m. Wednesday in Quebec), the Russian Ministry of Defense said, according to which “ up to 70” armed men “took part in the attack”. The attack was preceded by the “bombardment of civilian installations”, then “three attacks carried out by Ukrainian terrorist groups were repelled” by the Russian military, supported by the air force, which carried out 11 strikes, and the artillery, which carried out 79, he continued.
“In total, more than 50 Ukrainian terrorists, four armored fighting vehicles, a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher vehicle and a pickup truck were eliminated,” he said in the evening.
A group calling itself the “Russian Volunteer Corps”, which says it is made up of Russian fighters supporting Kiev and which claimed a role in the incursion into Belgorod last week, however assured Thursday afternoon that it was delivering fighting on Russian territory near Chebekino. It was impossible to independently verify these claims.
“Uninterrupted Strikes”
The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, for his part reported that the fall of a drone on the city had injured two people. “An unknown device exploded in Belgorod. According to initial information, a drone fell on the roadway. There are two injured, ”he said on Telegram, accompanying his message with a photo of an alleged debris from the device.
Another locality targeted, according to the Russian authorities: that of Chebekino, 40,000 inhabitants, located about ten kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
According to Mr. Gladkov, Ukrainian “continuous strikes” targeted it, including the very destructive Grad rocket launcher, damaging several buildings and injuring 12 people. “The building of a home hit by the shells is in flames, that of the administration [locale] also suffered damage,” assured the governor, adding that the city had no more electricity.
The Kremlin for its part denounced the lack of international condemnation of these attacks. “Still not a single word that would criticize or condemn the Kiev regime for this,” said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
According to Mr. Gladkov, the village of Novopetrovka, also located in the Belgorod region, was also hit by strikes, in which two teachers from a local school were injured.
Faced with this situation, the inhabitants of the bombarded areas fled and were received in temporary reception centres. “The largest municipal temporary accommodation center is gradually filling up, so all arrivals from Chebekino are being sent in an organized fashion to other, unoccupied centers,” Gladkov said.
Three dead in kyiv
The situation in the Belgorod region, subjected to these strikes and clashes, is the most serious described in Russia since the start of the conflict in February 2022. And this, at a time when Ukraine says it has been preparing for months a counter – major offensive. On Wednesday, the Russian authorities had already started to evacuate children from particularly affected areas of this region.
The largest municipal temporary accommodation center is gradually filling up, so all arrivals from Chebekino are sent in an organized fashion to other centers
Moscow, for its part, suffered an unprecedented drone attack on Tuesday, which caused two minor injuries and minor damage, according to the authorities.
On the Ukrainian side, kyiv experienced a new deadly attack on Thursday. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the anti-aircraft defense destroyed the 10 Russian missiles which targeted the capital, but the fall of the debris, which notably fell near a pediatric clinic in the district of Desnyanski, killed three people, including a child , and 16 wounded.