Russian authorities have announced that five people were killed and 46 others injured in a Ukrainian attack on Belgorod, a city in southwestern Russia, late Friday night.
This incident is the latest in a series of Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod over recent months.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod Region, reported that 37 of the injured, including seven children, were transported to hospitals in the city, which lies 40 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.
A video posted on social media, purportedly capturing the attack, shows a car exploding while moving on a road, followed by another explosion on the opposite side of the road.
Reuters has not yet been able to verify the authenticity of the video.
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, calling it a “brutal terrorist act.” In a statement on Saturday, the ministry urged all responsible governments and international entities to strongly denounce the attack and distance themselves from the Kyiv regime and its Western backers, who are accused of committing such crimes.
The ministry also reiterated that Russia’s “special military operation” would continue until all its objectives, including “disarmament and the eradication of Nazism” in Ukraine, are achieved.
The Russian Investigative Committee announced on its Telegram channel that it has launched a criminal investigation into the Belgorod attack.
Additionally, authorities reported that a woman was injured on Saturday during the Ukrainian shelling of the town of Shebekino, also in the Belgorod Region.
Ukrainian forces have been launching frequent attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border areas for months, making Belgorod a focal point of the conflict.
Both Ukraine and Russia claim they do not intentionally target civilians in the war, which began when Russia deployed thousands of troops into its smaller neighbor in February 2022.
