Xavier Colas Moscow

Moscow

Updated Thursday, February 15, 2024-17:12

  • Counteroffensive The Russian authorities in Belgorod propose to evacuate the inhabitants of the area in the face of Ukrainian bombings

  • Attacks Russia evicts hundreds of inhabitants from the border city of Belgorod due to Ukrainian bombings

Six people, including a one-year-old girl, were killed in a

Ukrainian missile attack

Thursday in the city of Belgorod, along the border with Ukraine.

Another 17 people, including four children, were hospitalized with injuries, six of them in serious condition.

Belgorod is the closest major Russian city to the border with Ukraine, and both the town and the surrounding region have been under frequent attack since February 2022, when

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine

, calling it a "special military operation".

According to the regional governor,

Vyacheslav Gladkov

, two of the children have already been discharged for outpatient treatment.

The deceased girl, only one year old, was called

Valentina

. The woman who was pushing her stroller has also died. Apparently, she was her grandmother. "We are all grieving with the families and friends of the victims," ​​Gladkov wrote on Telegram. "I want to express my deepest condolences, knowing that there are no words that can console this pain."

The Russian Defense Ministry claims that its air defense systems had shot down

14 Ukrainian missiles

over this region.

The Belgorod area is frequently punished. 25 civilians were killed in the largest of these attacks in late December, according to Russian authorities. It was the deadliest attack on a Russian city since the start of the war on February 24, 2022.


Poor anti-aircraft protection

The region, very close to the front, has little anti-aircraft protection compared to other more remote areas such as Sochi, where one of the residences of Russian President Vladimir Putin is located. In some cases, residents have reported that authorities refuse to report the location of shelters.

The Russian Ministry of Health sent a team of medical specialists from federal centers to Belgorod. A video posted on social media showed a small supermarket belonging to the Russian Magnit chain with almost all the windows shattered. Nearby apartments offered the same look. Meanwhile, emergency workers rushed to help the injured at an outdoor sports complex, also damaged.

The governor of the neighboring Kursk region,

Roman Starovoit

, said that a shopping mall, an outdoor sports facility and residential areas were attacked there. "The enemy is deliberately attacking groups of civilians," he said in statements reported by Reuters. There was no immediate comment from kyiv on the attacks.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson

Maria Zakharova

called the events an

"act of terrorism by the Kiev regime"

on Telegram and said Russia would take the case to the UN Security Council.