Sputnik
Over a dozen civilians were killed and scores more injured during Saturday’s daytime Ukrainian missile strike on Belgorod – a Russian city of 340,000 situated about 40 km from the Ukrainian border. Sputnik asked retired US Army colonel Earl Rasmussen for his take on what the Ukrainian military’s terror bombing campaign is meant to accomplish.
Casualties from Saturday’s Belgorod terror bombing attack continue to mount, with the Emergency Situations Ministry reporting at least 14 dead and 108 injured as of 6:30 pm Moscow time.
Russia’s military vowed to respond to the “criminal” attack in a measured way without resorting to eye-for-an-eye deliberate targeting of civilians. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced plansto call a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the incident.
“I think we see a sign of desperation in Ukraine,” Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik, commenting on the Belgorod attacks.
“They claim that they’re targeting military [objects], but we see very seldom [that it] is actually military targets. And in this case, we have a large number of civilian casualties. It’s desperation,” the former Eurasia Foundation vice president added.
“They’re trying to hit into Russia proper, they’re trying to change attitudes of Russian people perhaps. They’re trying to claim some type of ‘positive news’ they can provide their backers,” Rasmussen explained, not ruling out that the Belgorod strike may have been based on targeting information provided by NATO.
“It easily could have been Western countries providing targeting information. Did they provide them incorrectly? Were the coordinates off? I think they’re trying to strike out just at anything…That’s the situation with Kiev. I think they’re just trying to strike at anything and inflict whatever type of damage they can rather than rationally coming to a negotiated settlement or accepting the outcome. They’re in denial and delusion and they’re just trying to lash out. And it’s unfortunate civilians are being killed. It’s a pattern of theirs, and I think it’s a sign of desperation.”
Rasmussen stressed that if the logic of Saturday’s attack was to put “political pressure” on Russians or facilitate a change of policy by Moscow, the calculation was woefully mistaken. “I think these efforts will actually do the opposite, but I think those are some of the thought processes they may be having on the why,” he said.
In any case, the observer said Belgorod is a natural target for Kiev, since it’s situated just 40 km from the border, and is a fairly large city, meaning attacking it will be reported on heavily.
Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Belgorod on Saturday, killing over a dozen civilians and injuring over a hundred others. The settlement of Urazovo was also targeted.
The Ukrainian military's "criminal" indiscriminate shelling of Belgorod region was designed to distract from its failures at the front, and will not be left unpunished, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Saturday.
"Committing this crime, the Kiev regime is trying to divert attention from its defeats at the front, and to provoke us into similar actions," the MoD said in a statement.
On Saturday evening, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations raised the civilian toll from the attack on Belgorod to 14 killed (twelve adults and two children) and 108 injured.
The attacks took place at about 3 pm local time. The emergency services responded, blocking off an intersection of the city center, where several vehicles caught fire and multiple buildings took damage.
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