The number of fatalities caused by a Ukrainian strike on a settlement in Russia’s Bryansk Region has grown to four, local governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said on Sunday.
Emergency workers clearing rubble at the site following the overnight attack on the village of Suzemka have found and recovered the remains of two more civilians, Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.
Another two were wounded “as a result of the actions by Ukrainian nationalists” and they have been hospitalized, he added.
One house was completely destroyed in the attack and two others were damaged, according to the governor.
A state of emergency has been declared around Suzemka, which is located about ten kilometers from Russia’s border with Ukraine, due to the strike, Bogomaz said, adding that rescuers were continuing to work at the site.
Initially, he’d said that two people had been killed and that the settlement had been shelled from a multiple rocket launch system shortly after midnight on Sunday.
The updated death toll of four makes the strike on Suzemka one of the deadliest attacks on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022.
The Russian regions of Bryansk, Belgorod, and Kursk, all of which border Ukraine, have been the targets of numerous drone and missile attacks by Kiev’s forces over the past year.
The strikes have been aimed against energy infrastructure and residential areas, resulting in several civilian deaths, as well as many injuries and the destruction of property.
Bryansk Region suffered another major Ukrainian terrorist incident in early March when a group of gunmen crossed the border from the Ukraine side before attacking civilians and planting explosive devices. Two people were killed and a ten-year-old boy wounded in that incursion.