2023-12-30 22:30:00
(CNN) — At least 20 people, including two children, were killed and 111 others wounded in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on Saturday, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Saturday’s deaths were the result of a “huge” attack in the center of Belgorod, according to Russian state news agency TASS, citing the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The Kyiv regime… is trying to divert attention from the defeats at the front and provoke us into taking similar actions.”
Following the attack, Russia requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said on Saturday.
Saturday’s bombing comes after Russia launched its largest airstrike against Ukraine overnight since the start of its large-scale invasion, leaving at least 40 dead and more than 150 injured.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian regions near the border have continued almost daily for more than a year, sometimes causing civilian casualties. If confirmed, however, this Saturday’s incident will be one of the deadliest incidents. CNN cannot independently confirm the death toll.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the attack in Belgorod, the Kremlin said, and ordered a team from the Health Ministry and rescuers from the Emergencies Ministry to the city to help those affected.
Some 40 civilian facilities in the city were damaged due to the bombing, which caused 10 fires that have since been extinguished.
A view shows a car damaged after what was said to be a shelling by Ukrainian forces during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Belgorod, Russia. Credit: Governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, via Archyde.com
Russian authorities said Belgorod was also shelled on Friday night and one civilian was killed, according to the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. Four other people, including a child, were injured, he added.
On Saturday, a child also died as a result of Ukrainian shelling in Russia’s Bryansk region, the region’s governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 32 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles flying over Russia’s Bryansk, Oryol, Mursk and Moscow regions, according to a Defense Ministry Telegram post on Saturday.
Ukraine has not commented publicly on the incidents and rarely claims responsibility for the attacks on its neighbor.
Rescuers sift through rubble in Kyiv
Meanwhile, the toll from Russian attacks on Ukraine, in which unprecedented numbers of drones and missiles were fired at targets across the country, continued to rise.
Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of buildings were among the facilities affected by Friday’s bombing, prompting widespread international condemnation.
The death toll in the capital Kyiv rose to 16 after the bodies of more civilians were recovered from the rubble of a warehouse, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said Saturday. All deaths in Kyiv occurred in the warehouse.
“The attack on the capital on December 29 was the largest in terms of civilian casualties” since the start of the full-scale invasion, he said.
“Rescuers are working and will continue to clear the debris until tomorrow,” Klitschko said. “January 1 will be declared a day of mourning in Kyiv.”
During the wave of attacks, Polish military authorities claimed that an “unidentified aerial object” briefly entered their airspace.
Russia said it would not provide any explanation “until concrete evidence is presented.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote in X that NATO remains alert about the incident.
CNN’s Victoria Butenko, Svitlana Vlasova and Christian Edwards contributed to this report.
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