Kremlin Says 4 Dead After “Deliberate” Ukrainian Missile Attack On Russian Border City

Russian authorities are saying that a series of strikes rocked one of its cities near the border with Ukraine. Russia is calling it a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack on its territory in the early hours of Sunday morning, which reportedly killed at least four people in the city of Belgorod.

“The regional governor said the blasts hit dozens of residential buildings and air defenses had been activated,” BBC reports. “The Kremlin said that Sunday’s attack had been a deliberate attempt by Ukrainian forces to target civilians.”

However, as BBC also notes, “Ukraine dismissed the claim, saying the Russians had lied about similar incidents in the past.”

Belgorod is near Ukraine’s large northern city of Kharkiv. Lying just 25 miles north across the Ukrainian border, the major city in Russia’s south has 370,000 residents.

It’s not the first time potentially ‘errant’ missiles have struck Russian territory – or also it’s not the first time Russia has accused Ukraine of a deliberate cross-border attack, but the damage and death toll is the most significant and extensive thus far, with a major emergency response at the scenes of impact ongoing.

An Al Jazeera war reporter inside Ukraine said of the alleged incident: “We are trying to piece together exactly what happened through social media reports. Al Jazeera cannot confirm anything that either side is saying at this point.”

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