Photo copyright Yelizaveta Demidova/TASS
March 14, 2024
Two regions of Russia bordering Ukraine – Kursk and Belgorod regions – came under several attacks on Thursday. In Belgorod, at least two people were killed and about nine others were injured as a result of the morning shelling. In the Kursk region, the border village of Tetkino was shelled, where, according to Russian authorities, they were repelling an attempt to break through by saboteurs.
The Belgorod region on Thursday was first attacked by aircraft-type drones, and then – at about 08.30 Moscow time – a strike was carried out on Belgorod using a multiple launch rocket system, according to statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
As the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said, eight air targets were shot down on approach to the city, but one shell hit the engine of a passenger car. The man who was driving the car at that moment died on the spot.
In total, six people were injured from the shelling.
Photo by Pavel Kolyadin/TASS
Later in the afternoon on March 14, the Belgorod region was shelled again. How reported Head of the region Vyacheslav Gladkov, air defense forces shot down 10 air targets on approach to Belgorod.
The victim of the shelling was a civilian who was driving a car. As a result of the explosion, her car overturned into a ditch. “The woman died on the spot from her injuries,” the governor’s statement said.
At least three other people were injured. “Two women with barotraumas and a man with a shrapnel wound to the shoulder were taken by ambulance teams to city hospital No. 2 in Belgorod,” Gladkov said.
According to authorities, at least eight apartment buildings and three private houses were damaged in Belgorod, and 13 cars were also damaged.
Due to the shelling of the city, the work of shopping centers was suspended, authorities said.
A few hours later, Gladkov reported a third attack, during which the air defense systems shot down 11 air targets. According to him, there was an “arrival” in the city on the territory of a construction base, there were two victims.
Photo by Pavel Kolyadin/TASS
Photo by Pavel Kolyadin/TASS
Gladkov also reported two shellings of the city of Grayvoron. According to the governor, at least four people were injured there.
As a result of a direct hit in the house, two people were injured – a man had a head injury, and a girl was in shock. They were provided with the necessary assistance on the spot and refused hospitalization. Two more women from Grayvoron with shrapnel wounds were taken by ambulance to the district hospital.
Attacks by saboteurs
Immediately before the start of the second shelling of Belgorod in a day, representatives of the “Freedom of Russia” legion and the “Russian Volunteer Corps” (recognized as terrorist organizations in Russia and banned) warned that they would strike military targets in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions.
Soon, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian units thwarted an attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break into Russian territory in the Spodaryushino area in the Belgorod region. As a result of the fighting, according to the department, up to 195 Ukrainian military personnel and five tanks were killed.
There is no confirmation of this information. Russian “military correspondents” also previously wrote about battles with “Ukrainian saboteurs” in the border areas of the Belgorod and Kursk regions. According to them, the death toll among the attackers was much lower.
The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoyt, on Thursday, March 14, also reported that the Ukrainian DRGs “are not giving up attempts to enter” the territory of the region near the village of Tetkino. According to the head of the region, the FSB border guards and the Russian military have not yet “allowed” and “will not allow them to do this.”
Since the beginning of the week, the border regions of Russia have been subjected to massive drone attacks, shelling, and attacks by saboteurs. The Ukrainian side did not comment on the increasing attacks.
Vladimir Putin, in an interview released the day before, connected what was happening with the approaching presidential elections in Russia.
“The main goal, I have no doubt about it, is to, if not disrupt the presidential elections in Russia, then at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens. First. Second, this is the information effect [от нападений], which I already mentioned. But thirdly, if at least something works out, to get some chance, some argument, some trump card in a possible future negotiation process: well, we will return this to you, and you will return this to us,” Putin said.
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