Russia accuses Ukraine of ‘terrorist attack’ on Belgorod, vows revenge

The Belgorod attack came a day after Ukraine said a barrage of Russian missile strikes on several cities killed at least 40 people, wounding dozens more.

Firefighters extinguish flames after the shelling in Belgorod on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist attack” on Saturday on civilians in the city of Belgorod, including using cluster munitions in strikes that killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens more.

Moscow said the attack – which followed waves of rocket and drone strikes by Russian forces on Ukrainian cities – would “not go unpunished”.

In an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council demanded by Russia, envoy Vasily Nebenzya claimed Kyiv targeted a sports centre, an ice rink and a university. “In order to increase the number of casualties of the terrorist attack they used cluster munitions,” he said. “(It was a) deliberate, indiscriminate attack against a civilian target.”

Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky are due to give New Year’s Eve speeches on Sunday, as the conflict between the two countries approaches its second anniversary in February.

The Belgorod attack came a day after Ukraine said Russian missile strikes on several cities killed at least 40 people, wounding dozens more. Fresh strikes on Saturday caused more casualties in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Belgorod lies about 30km from the border with Ukraine and has been repeatedly struck by what Moscow says is indiscriminate shelling by Kyiv’s forces.

Unverified footage showed a street strewn with debris and smoke billowing from burnt-out cars in the city’s centre.

Agence France-Presse was not able to immediately verify the circumstances of the strike, one of the deadliest on Russian soil since Moscow launched hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia authorities said the death toll included at least three children, with 17 children among the 110 wounded.

Russia’s foreign ministry, which has repeatedly denounced Western arms deliveries to Ukraine, accused the US and Britain of “inciting the Kyiv regime to commit terrorist actions”.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment.

In Ukraine, rescuers continued to search through rubble on Saturday, after one of the fiercest Russian attacks since the early days of the conflict.

Schools, a hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the barrage, which triggered international condemnation. “Work is still under way to eliminate the consequences of yesterday’s Russian attack,” Zelensky said.

Three more people were killed by Russian strikes across Ukraine on Saturday, local officials said.

And the prosecutor’s office said Russian rocket attacks on Kharkiv on Saturday evening had wounded 26 people after hitting a range of buildings, including a hotel, a kindergarten, shops and restaurants.

AFP