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Russia’s Belgorod region comes under fire again: officials

31.05.2023 10:00
Officials in Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine have said that the town of Shebakino has been “shelled,” with one person killed and four injured.
Photo:
Photo:Gubkin-Life, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The attack was reported by Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gadkov early on Wednesday morning, The Kyiv Independent website reported.

Gladkov said that, according to “preliminary information,” there was one casualty of the artillery strike, with a further four people wounded, two of whom were hospitalised, according to news outlets.

The governor added it was “the third time in a week” that Shebakino had been hit, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.

Residential buildings in the town were damaged by the shelling and vehicles were on fire, according to Gladkov.

He blamed the artillery strike on Ukraine, The Guardian reported.

On Monday, the governor said Ukraine had responded to Russian attacks by shelling the Belgorod region, causing damage to a factory, a fire and injuries to four employees, according to The Kyiv Independent.

Russia’s western Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine was recently the scene of intense fighting as self-described Russian anti-Kremlin militia groups, claiming to fight on the side of Kyiv, carried out a successful incursion into the province, the website reported.

Meanwhile, Russia continued to shell northern Ukraine from its border regions, The Kyiv Independent added.

Russian officials claim Ukrainian drone caused oil refinery fire

Meanwhile, the governor of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region on Wednesday said that a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle had been the likely cause of a fire that erupted at the Afipsky oil refinery, The Guardian reported.

Veniamin Kondratyev said the fire was “soon extinguished” and caused no casualties.

The Afipsky refinery is not far from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossisk, near another refinery that suffered several attacks in May, according to The Guardian.

Wednesday’s developments came a day after Russia accused Ukraine of a drone strike on buildings in Moscow, while Kyiv denied responsibility, news outlets reported.

US ‘does not support attacks inside Russia’: White House 

The White House said on Tuesday it was “still gathering information about what happened” in Moscow, adding that the United States did not support attacks inside Russia and was focused on helping Ukraine reclaim its territory, the Reuters news agency reported.

A White House spokesperson said Washington was "focused on providing Ukraine with the equipment and training they need to retake their own sovereign territory," and noted that Ukraine’s capital Kyiv suffered 17 Russian air assaults in May alone, according to Reuters.

Wednesday is day 462 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

(pm/gs) 

Source: The Kyiv Independent, The Guardian, Reuters