According to Russia, a multi-story residential building was hit by a rocket in the Russian city of Belgorod and partially collapsed. At least seven people were killed and 15 injured. “The city and the oblast were subjected to massive shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Ukraine rejected the allegations and spoke of a “Russian provocation”.
“When a grenade hit an apartment building, the entire entrance area from the tenth to the first floor collapsed,” said Governor Gladkow. Photos of a destroyed building were published on social networks on Sunday. The roof of the building collapsed and also buried relief workers.
The Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform quoted the head of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, on the incident. The Russian information is therefore “not true”. The house in Belgorod was blown up by bombs or other explosions, Kovalenko wrote on Telegram. The situation seems like a “provocation by Russia to justify further attacks on Ukraine.”
Missile alarms had previously been triggered in the region that borders Ukraine, which is under attack by Russia. As a result of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia’s border region is also repeatedly under fire. However, victims and damage are not comparable to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian troops are advancing in Kharkiv and have taken control of several Ukrainian villages over the weekend, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. Ukrainian military chief Olexandr Syrskyj spoke on Sunday of a difficult situation in the region in northeastern Ukraine. But his country’s troops would do everything in their power to hold the position. With the start of the Russian offensive in Kharkiv a few days ago, there is a threat of the opening of a new front in northeastern Ukraine. The city of the same name, Kharkiv, is the second largest city in the country after Kiev and is around 400 kilometers as the crow flies from the capital.
According to the governor, more than 4,000 people were evacuated from areas near the border after a Russian advance in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. “A total of 4,073 people were evacuated,” regional governor Oleh Synegubow said on online networks on Sunday. He also stated that a 63-year-old was killed in artillery fire in the village of Hlyboke on Sunday and a 38-year-old was injured in Vovchansk.
On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the capture of five villages in the region. Russia has attempted to seize the border region of Kharkiv since its invasion began in February 2022; In the fall of 2022, his army had to largely withdraw from there. But like everywhere on the front, in this region since the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, it is the Russian armed forces that currently have the initiative.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine is expanding, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “There are villages that have turned from a ‘gray zone’ into a combat zone, and the occupiers are trying to gain a foothold in some of them or simply use them to further advance,” Zelensky described the situation in his daily video message on Sunday evening . With this offensive, the Russian military is trying to strain the Ukrainian forces to the utmost.
Above all, the situation around the city of Vovchansk is “extremely difficult”. Vovchansk originally had almost 19,000 inhabitants, of which, according to official information, almost 500 remained in the city, which was under constant fire. Zelensky spoke of Ukrainian counterattacks and fierce resistance from his country’s armed forces. “Our task is obvious – we must inflict as many casualties on the occupier as possible,” he said.
At the same time, Zelensky warned the Ukrainian population against unnecessary panic. “Russian information operations are always the fodder for Russian ground operations,” he said. “The occupier feeds on lies and the resulting fear.” That’s why he advises “not to be guided by emotions, not to chase the headlines, to check every report and look for information, not emotions or rumors, and to trust the Ukrainian Defense Forces.”