2023-12-30 22:19:57
05:17 PM
An attack, which Moscow accused the Ukrainian army of carrying out once morest Belgorod, left 18 dead and 108 injured this Saturday in that Russian city near the border with Ukraine.
“According to the latest information, 16 adults and two children died in Belgorod. In addition, 108 people, including 15 children, were injured,” the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations indicated on Telegram.
The ministry had previously reported a toll of ten dead and 45 injured.
Ukraine, which has not yet reacted to the Russian accusations, regularly carries out attacks in Russia, especially in the regions closest to its territory, but the number of victims is usually lower.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was “informed” of the attack on “residential areas” of the city, declared Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that “this attack will not go unpunished” and added that it managed to intercept two missiles and “most of the rockets launched once morest the city.”
“We have witnessed the worst consequences of the Ukrainian army’s bombings in the last two years,” lamented the region’s governor, Viatcheslav Gladkov.
Images posted online show burning cars, buildings with broken windows and plumes of black smoke in the city.
Following the attack, Russia requested a meeting of the UN Security Council, which will be held on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, will deliver their respective year-end speeches on Sunday.
Corpses in the rubble
At the same time, Ukraine was still counting its deaths on Saturday, following intense bombing the previous day in several cities, including the capital.
The wave of attacks, one of the most violent since the start of the war almost two years ago, targeted buildings, a maternity ward and even a shopping centre, but also industrial and military infrastructure.
Zelensky announced that “at the moment, 39 people have unfortunately died” throughout the country, adding that a hundred people were injured.
“About 120 cities and towns have been affected,” he declared, adding that search operations were continuing.
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