Two people were killed on Monday in the Russian region of Belgorod, bringing to 13 deaths the death toll from a week of Ukrainian strikes, with kyiv increasing bombings on border areas in response to Russian assaults for two years.
“Two people were killed by a direct strike on a house: a 17-year-old young man and a man. They died from their injuries before help arrived,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, adding that the bombing took place in the village of Nikolskoye and that it also left four people injured.
Earlier, the regional health ministry said 11 people died in Ukrainian bombings between March 12 and 17, a period marked by increased strikes.
These Ukrainian strikes showed, in the midst of the Russian presidential election, that Russia is not safe on its own territory, even though it is in a position of strength in the conflict.
Vladimir Putin, triumphantly re-elected on Sunday with more than 87% of the votes, assured that his country would take measures to curb these attacks, evoking the creation of a “sanitary” cordon in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, from where these strikes.
Russia has already tried to conquer this region and its capital, but its troops had to resort to a humiliating retreat in September 2022 after a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“Given the tragic events unfolding today, we will be forced at some point […] to create a sort of “sanitary zone” in the territories subordinate to the kyiv regime,” Mr. Putin said on Sunday evening, responding to a question after the announcement of his victory.
“It is a question of creating a security zone that the enemy will only be able to overcome with difficulty with the means at its disposal,” he added, without further details.