MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces attacked civilian facilities in Belgorod on Thursday. Russian air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 14 projectiles. According to preliminary data, the attack left six people, including a child, killed and 17 others wounded.
TASS has summed up information about the latest Ukrainian attack on the Russian borderline city.
Ukrainian attack
- At 12:21 p.m. Moscow time (8:21 a.m. GMT - TAS), Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel that an air raid siren was sounding in and around Belgorod.
- According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian air defense forces destroyed 14 RM-70 Vampire rockets over the Belgorod Region during the Ukrainian shelling.
- The attack left six people, including a child, killed, with another 17 people, including four children, being injured, Gladkov said.
- Fifteen people, including two children, have been rushed to hospital, according to health officials. Eight injured persons are in intensive care.
- Seven private homes, five residential blocks, five cars, and a shop have been damaged in the attack, and a plant has been scarred, too. Two households were damaged in the village of Shagarovka outside Belgorod.
- The first floor of a Belgorod shopping mall was hit hardest. People on the second floor were not injured, and everybody has been evacuated from the building, witnesses told TASS.
Relief efforts and reaction
- Emergency services are working at the scene, Gladkov said.
- Roman Starovoit, Governor of the neighboring Kursk Region, offered his condolences and expressed readiness to provide assistance to residents of the Belgorod Region, where the latest Ukrainian attack has caused "numerous casualties," he said. According to Starovoit, projectiles also hit a shopping mall, a school stadium and residential neighborhoods.
- Russia will request meetings at relevant international organizations, including the UN Security Council, in the wake of the incident, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Previous massive attack on Belgorod
- As many as 25 people were killed in massive Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod on December 29 and 30, and more than 100 others were injured. Over 40 buildings, including municipal and social facilities, as well as shopping malls were damaged.
- In response, the Russian military struck defense facilities in Ukraine, killing both plotters and perpetrators of the attack.