Death toll rises in Ukrainian strike on Russian city
The death toll from an apartment block collapse caused by a Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Belgorod on Sunday has risen to 17 people, the Emergencies Ministry has said.
Two more bodies have been recovered from the rubble, the ministry wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, adding that the victims are a male and a female.
The capital of Belgorod Region on the border with Ukraine came under heavy shelling from Kiev’s forces on May 12.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a Tochka-U tactical missile system, as well as Olkha and Czech-supplied RM-70 Vampire multiple rocket launchers, were used to carry out a “terrorist attack on residential areas” in the city.
According to the ministry, air defenses intercepted a dozen incoming projectiles, but fragments from a downed Tochka-U missile struck a ten-story apartment block in Belgorod’s Kharkovskaya Mountain residential area.
As a result, a whole section of the building collapsed, trapping residents under the rubble. Rescuers found 15 bodies on site on Sunday, while 17 more people were hospitalized with various injuries. Three more people were killed by Ukrainian shelling elsewhere in the city on the same day, according to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
