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This picture shows a house damaged in a Ukrainian attack on the settlement of Urazovo in the Belgorod region, Russia, on December 30, 2023 (Photo via Reuters)
A Ukrainian attack on the Belgorod Oblast in western Russia has left at least 14 people dead, including two children, and 108 others injured, according to Russian officials.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Saturday the attacks on the region had damaged 55 homes, two private businesses, a football ground, a leisure center, and a preschool, urging all residents on social media to move to air raid shelters as sirens sounded.
RIA news agency posted images showing at least three cars on fire, and other images posted online showed black smoke rising from the provincial capital city of Belgorod.
Also, the governor of the Bryansk region said two villages were targeted and a 9-year-old child had been killed.
The Russian defense ministry said earlier on Saturday that more than a dozen missiles were destroyed and 32 drones had been shot down in the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk, and Moscow regions. It said in a statement that the attack would "not go unpunished".
Russia pins the blame for the cross-border attacks on Ukraine; however, Kiev never acknowledges responsibility for the attacks on Russian main territory and Crimea.
The Ukrainian attacks came after Russia launched fresh airstrikes against Ukraine, targeting the Ukrainian military facilities in the south, west, and east of the country, with heavy damage reported at multiple sites. The area in western Russia near the border with Ukraine has been under regular drone attacks.
Fighting along the frontline in Eastern Ukraine is largely bogged down by the strong defense lines and winter weather after Kiev’s much-hyped summer counteroffensive failed to advance in any direction along the roughly 1,000 km frontier between the two countries.