5 Killed, 18 Injured In Air Strike On Belgorod, Says Russia

An air attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on Thursday killed at least five people and wounded 18 others, the region's governor said.

Videos shared on social media showed a shattered storefront surrounded by debris in the city close to the Ukrainian border. One showed a body covered with a blanket nearby.

"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.

The defence ministry said it had shot down 14 Ukrainian rockets over the region, which it said had been fired by an RM-70 multiple rocket launcher system.

Belgorod city lies about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Ukraine and has been repeatedly struck by what Moscow says is indiscriminate shelling by Kyiv's forces.

Authorities began evacuating some residents from the city last month after officials said a Ukrainian attack in late December had killed 25 people.

Hundreds of people including around 400 children have already left, in Russia's biggest evacuation since it launched full-scale hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022

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