Russia’s defense ministry vowed revenge for a deadly strike on Belgorod, claiming that Ukraine’s military had used so-called cluster bombs in the attack.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” the ministry said in a statement about the strike on the city about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Russia’s border with Ukraine. At least 18 people were killed, the New York Times reported, citing Russian authorities. The dead included two children, and more than 100 people were injured.
Multiple explosions were heard on Saturday evening in Ukrainian cities from Kharkiv and Sumy, near the Russian border, to Kherson in the south, with widespread air raid alerts triggered.
Russia’s foreign ministry has called for a United Nations Security Council meeting Saturday to discuss the attack, Tass said.
Air defense units intercepted missiles and rockets fired by Ukraine’s armed forces and some of the debris hit the city, the defense ministry said. It said the strikes were carried out with Ukrainian Olkha missiles fitted with cluster-munition warheads, as well as Czech-made Vampire rockets.
Russia’s claims couldn’t be verified, and Ukraine hasn’t commented directly. The Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, citing sources, said earlier that Kyiv’s forces targeted military objects in the area and that casualties resulted from Russia’s air defense operations.
The attack on Belgorod followed a Ukrainian drone swarm across several Russian regions overnight — and in turn, Moscow’s massive missile bombardment of Ukraine on Friday, which left dozens dead. The exchanges suggest the 22-month war is escalating again heading into 2024.
President Vladimir Putin has been briefed and ordered medical specialists to travel to Belgorod from Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Tass.
The strike damaged residential buildings, shopping centers, the local government center and a medical school, according to the state-run Ria Novosti news agency.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported deaths and injuries, including of children, in a Telegram post. Russia’s emergency situations ministry said that 14 people had been killed and 108 injured, Tass newswire reported.
Russian Telegram channels show smoke, fire and damaged cars and buildings in the city center. Unverified videos on social media showed scenes of panic around an ice rink and shopping center.
The attack was the largest on a Russian city since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia earlier said its air defenses shot down 32 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow, Bryansk, Orel and Kursk regions.
Shelling also hit the village of Urazovo in the Belgorod region, striking a sports and recreation complex, power lines and about 20 private households, Gladkov said.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has escalated in the final week of 2023. On Friday Russia hit Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles, the heaviest Russian missile bombardment so far, with at least 39 people killed. That attack was seen as retaliation for Ukraine’s destruction of the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk in Feodosia, Crimea, earlier in the week.