Two people were killed and two others wounded as a result of shelling and strikes carried out by Ukrainian forces on the region today, Saturday, while hundreds of children were evacuated away from the border, said Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Russian governor of Belgorod.
“Since this morning, residential areas of Chebykino have been under fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
“The Shibekino children are very worried about their hometown… They stopped me and started asking questions, and they seemed troubled and worried,” he said, after accompanying about 600 children from Shibekino.
Gladkov said earlier that Chebykino, a population of 40,000 on the border, and other places in southern Russia, had been attacked repeatedly in the past week, prompting the evacuation of more than 2,500 people so far.
In recent days, Russian officials have reported massive attacks from northern Ukraine.
Gladkov said in a previous statement that five people were killed and 16 wounded in Ukrainian bombing attacks on the Belgorod region on Friday.
“It was a restless night… Air defense systems were operating over Belgorod” Gladkov wrote.
In addition, twenty people, including three children, were seriously injured in an air attack in Dnipro, central Ukraine, on Saturday evening, as announced by the Ukrainian authorities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russians of attacking the city, explaining that the bombing hit two buildings in a residential area in Dnipro.
“The Russians attacked the city… They hit two residential buildings of two floors… Unfortunately, there are people under the rubble,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
The Ukrainian president posted a video showing rescuers searching the destroyed building and the roar of industrial machinery is heard.
“The enemy wounded five children in the town of Pedrodninska,” said the governor of the Dnipro region, Serhiy Lysak.
He added, “Doctors estimate that the condition of three children is serious while they are in the operating room”.
The same source added, “The total number of injured has risen to twenty, 17 of them were taken to hospital,” stressing that rescuers are continuing to search for possible victims under the rubble.
Russian air strikes on Ukraine and Ukrainian bombing of Russian soil have intensified in recent weeks, while Kiev confirms that it is preparing for a major attack against Moscow’s forces with the aim of regaining the lands it lost since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
In the same context, during the past 24 hours, the Russian forces launched 30 air strikes and 56 attacks with multiple launch missile systems on the positions of the Ukrainian forces and populated settlements.
This came in a statement issued by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on its page on Facebook and was reported by the Ukrainian National Ukrinform News Agency on Sunday.
They added, “During the past 24 hours, the enemy launched two missile attacks on the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, in particular, using the Iskander missile system”.
“Iskander-K missile hit the outskirts of Dnipro, damaging a two-storey residential building, and injuring more than 20 civilians, including children”.
“In addition, the enemy launched 30 air raids and 56 multiple-launch missile systems attacks on the positions of our forces and populated settlements,” the commission said.
They added that the Ukrainian Air Force launched 11 air raids on the areas of concentration of enemy personnel, in addition to 6 air raids on enemy anti-aircraft missile systems during the past 24 hours.
The Ukrainian Air Defense Forces destroyed six enemy reconnaissance drones, in addition to two Lancet combat drones.
During the past 24 hours, missile and artillery units hit an enemy command center, an anti-aircraft missile system, six artillery units in firing positions, and three ammunition depots.
The authority added that the enemy continues to focus its main efforts on attempts to occupy the entire Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
During the past 24 hours, 23 combat clashes took place.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed the country was ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive to liberate its lands from Russian occupation.
“In my opinion, starting today, we are ready to do that,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Zelensky added that Ukraine would have liked to have more weapons to attack against the Russian invasion, but it couldn’t wait for more months.
