A day following the reported killing of at least 41 civilians by Russian forces in Ukraine, a retaliatory strike on Saturday in the Russian border city of Belgorod resulted in the deaths of 21 people, including three children, according to local officials. The shelling, occurring in the city center, wounded an additional 110 individuals, marking one of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil since the commencement of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 22 months ago.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov confirmed the casualties and described the attack as an act by Kyiv in response to the preceding 18-hour aerial bombardment across Ukraine that claimed the lives of at least 41 civilians.
Images circulating on social media portrayed burning cars, damaged buildings, and plumes of black smoke in Belgorod. Notably, one strike targeted an area close to a public ice rink in the heart of the city.
Russia’s Defense Ministry alleged that the ammunition used in the strike included Czech-made Vampire rockets and Olkha missiles with cluster-munition warheads, offering no further details. The ministry declared on social media, “This crime will not go unpunished,” while the Kremlin stated that President Vladimir Putin had been briefed, and Health Minister Mikhail Murashko was instructed to join a delegation of medical personnel and rescue workers heading to Belgorod.
Russian diplomats called for a UN Security Council meeting, accusing Britain and the United States of encouraging what they termed a “terrorist attack” by Kyiv. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova placed blame on EU countries supplying weapons to Ukraine, stating, “Silence in response to the unbridled barbarity of Ukraine’s Nazis and their puppeteers and accomplices from ‘civilized democracies’ will be akin to complicity in their bloody deeds.”
Prior to the Belgorod incident, Moscow officials reported the downing of 32 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions and stated that cross-border shelling had resulted in two additional deaths in Russia. A man died, and four others were wounded in a missile strike on a private home in the Belgorod region on Friday evening, while a 9-year-old was killed in a separate incident in the Bryansk region.
