MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/. The number of fatalities in the Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Belgorod has climbed to 22, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

"To great regret, to great sorrow, the death toll from yesterday's shelling of Belgorod has increased to 22. One of the victims died in a hospital overnight," he said on Telegram.

Gladkov said doctors and officials were preparing to relocate 25 seriously injured people to federal clinics. He said there is a total of 109 injured people.

Work to restore damaged houses and clean up the debris continued throughout the night, the governor said. Damage had been done to a total of 30 apartment buildings, several single-family homes and a lot of cars, he added.

The city of Belgorod and the surrounding region have recently come under shelling. The latest strike was carried out with a Czech-made MLRS that fired two rockets with cluster munitions into downtown Belgorod. Exclusively civilian facilities were hit. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, air defense systems intercepted both rockets and most of the other projectiles. Otherwise, the consequences would have been much more serious, the ministry said.