Ukraine War: Several killed, injured in airstrike on Belgorod, says Russia

At least five people were killed and eighteen others were injured in an air strike on the Russian city of Belgorod on Thursday, according to the governor of the area. Social media videos from the city near the Ukrainian border showed a broken storefront surrounded by trash. One displayed a body close by, draped in a blanket. “According to preliminary data, five people were killed in Belgorod, including one child, and another 18 people were injured, five of them children,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “Ambulance crews are taking the injured to medical centres. All necessary assistance is being provided,” he said in a post on his Telegram channel. According to the ministry of defense, an RM-70 multiple rocket launcher system fired 14 missiles from Ukraine over the region that it shot down. About 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Belgorod city has been subjected to what Moscow claims is indiscriminate shelling by Kyiv’s military on multiple occasions. Since authorities claimed that a Ukrainian strike in late December had killed twenty-five people, they had started to evacuate part of the city’s residents last month. Russia has already evacuated hundreds of civilians, including almost 400 children, in the largest exodus since it began full-scale hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022.