‘Several Killed As Ukraine Hits Russia’

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia accused neighboring Ukraine on Friday of attacking Russia’s Belgorod region, killing at least two people and injuring two others.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod border area, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Ukrainian shelling struck a section of the road in the town of Maslova Pristan, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region.

He said shell fragments had struck passing cars, killing passengers. “Two women were traveling in one of them. They died from their injuries on the spot,” he explained in comments on social media.

He added that at least one shelling incident was reported overnight in the Shebekino district, and over 2,500 people were being evacuated from the area.

The governor of the Bryansk region, north of Belgorod, said four homes had been damaged by shelling, while the head of the neighboring Kursk region said some buildings had been injured in an overnight drone strike.

Friday’s clashes underscored broader concerns that Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two is rapidly escalating beyond Ukraine’s borders.

KYIV DENIES ATTACKS

Several attacks have been reported in Belgorod, the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, and even further away in Moscow.

However, Kyiv has so far denied involvement in the attacks saying rogue Russian forces were responsible. Last month Moscow claimed to have killed some 70 Ukrainian insurgents entering Russia’s Belgorod region using Western military vehicles.

In turn, Ukraine said it endured massive air strikes from Russia in recent days. However, Ukrainian authorities on Friday lifted air raid alerts across most of the nation.

Authorities in Kyiv, the capital, said defenses appeared to have shot down more than 30 missiles and drones fired by Russia.

Moscow has launched around 20 separate missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities since the start of May, according to observers.

Russia has vehemently denied targeting civilians or committing war crimes. But witnesses say the attacks have devastated Ukrainian cities and towns.

‘DENAZIFY COUNTRY’

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” to “denazify” the country.

He also claimed that Moscow wanted to protect Russian speakers and defend its borders from “aggressive” Western ambitions.

Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Putin of brutal tactics and an imperialist-style land grab in Ukraine as part of his efforts to re-establish the Russia-led Soviet Union.

Putin has called the collapse of the Soviet empire in the 1990s “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

The war in Ukraine is believed to have killed and injured hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians on both sides.

Additionally, millions were forced to flee, causing Europe’s most enormous refugee influx since World War Two.

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