Russian war of aggression - Another missile alert over Belgorod - 24 dead after attack
According to official figures, the death toll in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border has risen to 24 following a Ukrainian attack. The governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported two more deaths on Sunday.
More than 100 people were injured by shelling on Friday and Saturday, he wrote on the social network Telegram. On Sunday morning, another missile alert was triggered in the city with a population of around 350,000. "All residents should go to shelters," Gladkov wrote. The alert was lifted again after a short time, as reported by the Tass agency.
In the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since February 2022, the deaths in Belgorod are the heaviest loss among the Russian civilian population to date. According to Russian military sources, Ukraine is said to have shelled the city with combat drones and rocket artillery.
In Moscow, the Ministry of Defense announced that two precision-guided Ukrainian missiles had been tipped with cluster munitions. Although these missiles had been shot down by air defense, their debris with cluster munitions had fallen into the city center of Belgorod, the military said. This information could not immediately be independently verified. Cluster munitions are smaller explosive devices that are released by a larger projectile and are primarily intended to hit vehicles and people.
No statement from Kiev so far
There had been no official statement from Kiev by Sunday morning. The news portal "Ukrajinska Pravda" merely wrote, citing an anonymous Ukrainian intelligence source, that the Ukrainian army had targeted Russian military objects. Civilians were harmed due to "unprofessional actions of the Russian air defense as well as deliberate and planned provocations".
Due to the deaths in Belgorod, several other Russian cities also canceled their New Year's Eve celebrations at short notice. The mayors of Vladivostok, Magadan and Blagoveshchensk in Russia's Far East, among others, issued corresponding orders on Sunday. Due to the eastern location, the turn of the year there takes place several hours before the European part of Russia or Western Europe. "We mourn with the whole country," wrote the mayor of Vladivostok, Konstantin Shestakov, on Telegram.
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Source: www.stern.de
