At least four civilians were killed and 27 wounded on Friday in bombardments on the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, where the capital Kiev suffered a sixth wave of strikes in six days.
The Belgorod region has been targeted for several days by strikes of unprecedented intensity on Russian territory since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.
On Friday, the regional governor said that shells fired by Ukrainian forces had crashed on a road near the town of Chebekino, located about ten kilometers from Ukraine and frequently bombarded.
"Shrapnel hit passing cars. In one of them, two women ... died on the spot of their injuries," Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that two men were also seriously injured. wounded.
In the evening, two other civilians were killed in the village of Sobolevka in a Grad multiple rocket launcher bombardment which also left six injured, including two children, Mr. Gladkov reported.
The strikes on the Belgorod region have intensified in recent days, when kyiv says it is preparing to launch a major offensive against the areas conquered by Russian forces in Ukraine.
The most affected area is the town near the border of Chebekino, which has 40,000 inhabitants, some of whom have fled. "Yesterday more than 850 shells fell on the district," Gladkov said.
On Thursday, the Russian army claimed to have repelled with its artillery and air force a Ukrainian attempt to "invade" the Belgorod region, a week after a spectacular incursion by armed men which caused shock in Russia.
These attacks on Russian soil have been claimed by groups calling themselves Russian and fighting for Kyiv, and the Ukrainian authorities have denied any involvement.
Faced with this rain of gunfire, nearly 2,500 people fled to the regional capital, Belgorod, where they were taken care of in temporary accommodation centers, the mayor of the city Valentin Demidov told AFP.
An AFP journalist visited a converted Belgorod stadium on Friday, welcoming nearly 1,000 people. The situation in the city was calm.
Russian authorities also reported on Friday the death of three civilians in Ukrainian fire on the occupied towns of Donetsk and Makiivka in eastern Ukraine.
kyiv was targeted by a new wave of explosive drones and missiles at dawn, said its mayor Vitali Klitschko, adding that no casualties were to be reported. This is the sixth attack on the Ukrainian capital in six days.
"Tonight the enemy used 15 Iranian Shahed cruise missiles and 18 attack drones for strikes - all of these air targets were destroyed by our defenders," the Ukrainian military said.
A few hours later, the Russian army claimed to have bombed and "hit" Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense systems covering "key military infrastructure" during the night.
Russia has been increasing drone and missile attacks on kyiv since the beginning of May, often at night, a tactic denounced by Ukraine as aimed at terrorizing the civilian population.
Thursday morning, at least three people, including a child, were killed in kyiv during one of these attacks.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were killed in shelling on Friday in the Kharkiv region and another in the Sumy region in the northeast.
On the diplomatic level, the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is Friday in Finland, a Nordic country bordering Russia which recently joined NATO.
On this occasion, Mr. Blinken rejected any unfavorable ceasefire in kyiv, stressing that continuing to arm and strengthen Ukraine was the only way to achieve "real peace".
He also felt that the attack in Ukraine had turned into a "strategic failure" for Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted on Friday that his country's NATO membership was "impossible" as long as the war is underway. The day before, he had called on the European leaders gathered in Moldova to have no more "doubts" about Kiev's entry into the Atlantic Alliance.
“Such statements show that the Kiev regime is not ready, unwilling and unable to resolve the existing problems at the negotiating table,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted on Friday. .
He affirmed that Moscow would continue to accomplish its "goals" and defend "its security". "This excludes such an enlargement of the (Atlantic) Alliance and its rapprochement with our border," he insisted.
The Chinese envoy to Ukraine, back in Beijing after a tour of Europe, admitted that "many difficulties" prevented Russia and Ukraine from starting peace talks.
02/06/2023 22:05:54 - Belgorod (Russie) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
