‘Hell in Belgorod’: Casualties reported following Ukraine attacks, Russia boasts of downing Ukrainian helicopter
Russian forces said they shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter that was flying into the country’s Belgorod region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
It said the helicopter was shot down in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, which is close to the Russian border.
The aircraft was shot down as part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s response to a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks overnight.
The ministry said it shot down 35 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, including Belgorod and Moscow.
Ukraine denies information regarding the downing of the helicopter
Ukraine’s top intelligence agency later on Sunday denied “information by Russian propagandists regarding the alleged downing of a Black Hawk helicopter, Ukrainska Pravda reports.”
“All Black Hawk helicopters of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine are in excellent working order; their crews continue to carry out combat and special missions.
“Propagandists and their slaves from the Kremlin spreading fake news regarding the alleged shooting down of a Ukrainian military intelligence helicopter should drink less,” the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said.
“Hell in Belgorod”
As we previously reported, Russia says a teenage girl was killed in a Ukrainian attack in Belgorod.
The region, located near the Russian-Ukrainian border, came under fire in the early hours of the morning when Kyiv launched drone strikes.
Writing in Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov gave an update on the situation and said that one person was also killed and a total of 11 people were injured.
“Hell in Belgorod and the Belgorod region was triggered by the air defense system,” he wrote.
He said the man was in the parking lot at the time of the shooting and died from his wounds before EMS arrived.
He added that eight injured people were taken to hospital, including a woman who had a “shrapnel wound to the chest”.
The governor of Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced earlier on Sunday that a private house caught fire during Ukrainian shelling in and around Belgorod on Sunday, killing a 16-year-old girl and wounding her father.
A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Ukraine’s Krasnodar region on Sunday following a drone attack, and one person died of cardiac arrest, regional officials said. The fire was reportedly extinguished a few hours later.
Oil refineries and oil terminals are important targets of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Ukraine has carried out a number of drone attacks and other raids in recent days, which Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will almost certainly rule for another six years following this election, has called it an attempt to intimidate the population and disrupt the vote.
Britain’s Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that the country’s defense secretary, Grant Shapps, had canceled a trip to Odessa earlier this month due to the threat of Russian missiles. The newspaper “The Sunday Times” wrote that Mr. Shapps, who visited Kyiv on March 7, was warned by British intelligence that Russia had learned regarding his travel plans.
As Russia’s war once morest Ukraine continues into its third year, the Russians have made small territorial gains on the frontline, relying on their greater firepower, while the Ukrainians are responding with cross-border raids and more drone attacks far into Russian territory.
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2024-04-07 21:26:42
