Ukraine Strikes Russia’s Belgorod Killing 1, Injuring 4, Damages Border City’s Water Supply

Ukrainian forces struck a residential building in the Russian border city of Belgorod, killing one person and injuring four others. Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack damaged the city’s water supply system.

Russian authorities said that it intercepted a total of 32 drones, including in the Moscow region. They said that Russian air defence systems destroyed a total of 13 missiles over the area that borders Ukraine.

Russian forces also intercepted and destroyed drones in the border regions of Bryansk and Kursk and also in Oryol and the Moscow region. Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said a “drone-type aircraft” was destroyed above the regional capital.

Belgorod city is 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which was heavily hit by Russian forces on Friday morning according to Ukrainian authorities. At least 30 people were killed and more than 160 wounded in Ukraine on Friday in a series of Russian strikes across the country, according to Kyiv.

Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the barrage, said Ukrainian officials. “Today Russia hit us with almost everything it has in its arsenal,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian army estimated that Russia launched 158 missiles and drones on Ukraine and 114 of them were destroyed. Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat said it was “record number” of missiles and “the most massive missile attack” of the war, if the early days of constant bombing are to be excluded, according to a report by news agency AFP.

Russia tried to break down Ukraine’s air defences across most major cities by launching a wave of Shahed attack drones followed by missiles of numerous types fired from planes and from Russian-controlled territory.

The United Nations condemned the attacks and said they must stop “immediately”.

“Regrettably, today’s appalling assaults were only the latest in a series of escalating attacks by the Russian Federation,” said UN assistant secretary-general Mohamed Khiari.

Poland reported that a Russian missile passed through its airspace.