Ukrainian rocket artillery has launched another “indiscriminate”attack on Belgorod, local authorities confirmed shortly after midnight on Friday. Residents were warned to shelter in place.
Warning sirens went off just before midnight as air defenses detected and engaged incoming missiles. Air defenses shot down ten incoming rockets on approach to the city, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. According to him, two civilians were taken to local hospitals with shrapnel injuries.
Local residents were warned to stay indoors and away from windows if possible.
Videos posted on social media showed cars damaged by debris and on fire. Gladkov said that several buildings had their windows shattered by an explosion, and that more than 30 cars were damaged.
The mayor of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov, said that at least 130 windows were shattered in the attack, sharing multiple photos of the aftermath. With outside temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit), the emergency services are working overnight to urgently restore the thermal envelope of the affected flats, the official added.
Friday’s attack marked the seventh day in a row of Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod, the capital of a region bordering Ukraine. Last Saturday’s rocket attack on the city’s main square killed 25 civilians – including children – and wounded 100 more.
Although Ukrainian forces have struck civilians in Russia’s border regions for months, the December 30 attack was the worst of its kind since the start of the conflict. Moscow has accused the US and the UK of helping plan the strike. A security source told RT that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky personally ordered the massacre, and that it was carried out by the neo-Nazi ‘Kraken’ unit based in Kharkov, with the involvement of military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov
Ukraine targets Crimea with drones, missiles
RT
Three dozen Ukrainian drones were shot down while attempting to strike Crimea in the early hours of Friday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
“An attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles was stopped on January 5,” the ministry said in a bulletin.
“Air defense systems on duty destroyed and intercepted 36 Ukrainian UAVs over the territory of the Republic of Crimea and one UAV over the territory of Krasnodar Region,” the military added.
The drone attack came just hours after an attempted missile strike on Sevastopol, in which Kiev’s forces used ten missiles, including the Western-supplied “Storm Shadows.”
According to local media, none of the missiles reached their intended targets. Debris from the destroyed projectiles caused some property damage, however, and injured one civilian.
One downed missile fell in the residential area near the Sevastopol State University (SevGU) and did not explode. The area has been cordoned off to allow explosive ordnance disposal teams to handle the situation.
Around the same time as the drone attack, Ukrainian artillery also targeted the city of Belgorod across the northern border. A total of ten rockets were intercepted, but at least one struck a parking lot in a residential area, shattering windows and damaging a number of cars. Two civilians were reported injured by local authorities.
Belgorod has been subjected to Ukrainian shelling for seven days in a row now. On Saturday, rockets with cluster warheads struck the town square, killing 25 civilians – including children – and wounding 100 more. Moscow has accused the US and the UK of helping plan the strike.
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