In a dramatic turn of events, the city of Belgorod in Russia became the epicentre of a deadly Missile assault on Saturday, allegedly orchestrated by Ukrainian forces. This retaliation, a response to a massive air assault by Moscow just a day earlier, has been labelled as the deadliest Missile single attack on Russian soil since the commencement of the war nearly two years ago.
Official reports from Russian authorities on Saturday indicated that the Ukrainian attack on Belgorod claimed the lives of at least 20 people, with over 110 others sustaining injuries. The Russian Defense Ministry asserted that Ukraine targeted Belgorod, a regional center situated approximately 25 miles north of the Ukrainian border, using two missiles and several Missile rockets. The strike was described as “indiscriminate,” with most rockets reportedly intercepted, though some debris did fall on the city. The Ukrainian government has yet to officially comment on the Belgorod attack, and the accuracy of Russian claims remains unverified.
The assault on Belgorod appears to be Ukraine’s bold response to the preceding day’s extensive and lethal Russian air campaign against its territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an overnight address on Friday, expressed his country’s commitment to “work toward pushing the war back” to Russia. The back-to-back attacks on Belgorod were swiftly followed by several reported Russian strikes against Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city approximately 40 miles away, indicating a cross-border retaliation.
Despite challenges in securing Western funding and growing war fatigue in Russia, both Moscow and Kyiv have shown a willingness to escalate the conflict, now on the brink of its two-year anniversary. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, conveyed on social media that there would be “an answer for all crimes,” while Russia’s Defence Ministry warned that the attack on Belgorod “would not go unpunished.”
While the details of Saturday’s attack into Russia remain unclear, the significant death toll alone marks it as a noteworthy event. The violence in Belgorod, a city that has experienced repeated explosions over the last two years, shattered the sense of relative normalcy that many Russians had clung to despite the ongoing war. Ukrainians view the strikes as a way to bring the suffering they have endured for nearly two years home to Russia, while pro-war Russians see them as a call for even more aggressive tactics in Ukraine.
The aftermath of the Belgorod Missile bombardment was captured in a video posted by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, revealing cars on fire, injured individuals being rushed to shelter, and broken glass adorning the city’s buildings. Russian state television broadcast videos shared by Belgorod residents, showcasing plumes of smoke, shattered glass near residential buildings, and people lying on pavements—a haunting echo of scenes from Ukrainian cities like Kyiv, Lviv, and Dnipro.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, reported that three children were among those killed in Missile strike, emphasizing that a residential area in the city center bore the brunt of the attack. Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced the convening of an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the incident, echoing the condemnation expressed by the United States, France, and Britain in response to Russia’s assault on Ukrainian cities the day before.
Ukraine has repeatedly emphasized its lack of fear in taking the war to Russian territory. Previous cross-border strikes and brief ground assaults by Kyiv-backed, anti-Kremlin Russian fighters in the Belgorod region resulted in at least 50 deaths inside Russia, according to the United Nations, along with the evacuation of a few thousand civilians and minor clashes with the Russian military.
The Missile strike on Belgorod was allegedly a direct response to Russia’s massive air assault on Ukraine the previous day, as revealed by an official from Ukraine’s intelligence services. The Ukrainian intelligence official, speaking anonymously, clarified that only military facilities were targeted in the assault, one of the largest of the war. This attack on Ukraine resulted in at least 39 deaths, around 160 injuries, and damage to both civilian and military infrastructure.
Ukrainian rescuers were still grappling with the aftermath on Saturday, pulling bodies from the rubble of a factory struck in central Kyiv, the capital. Simultaneously, the Ukrainian authorities reported that Russia launched an assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in what seemed to be Moscow’s response to the Ukrainian retaliation.
Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region stated that Russian missiles fired from the Belgorod region targeted the eastern Ukrainian city, injuring at least 21 people. The Russian military reportedly struck the city center six times, causing damage to residential buildings, shops, and a medical facility. Unverified videos and images shared on social media depicted the Kharkiv Palace Hotel, a popular venue for foreign journalists, being hit, with photos revealing a building facade pierced by a massive hole.
The back-to-back air Missile assaults on Friday and Saturday occurred as Ukrainian and Russian troops found themselves mired in bloody and inconclusive land fighting. Despite Moscow’s incremental advances along the front in recent weeks, military experts suggest that these gains are unlikely to lead to a major breakthrough in the near future. The conflict, now teetering on its two-year anniversary, continues to escalate, posing significant challenges to both nations and raising concerns on the international stage.
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