Child killed in Ukrainian drone strike – Russian governor
A nine-year-old child was killed and his mother and infant sister wounded after a Ukrainian drone struck a private home in Russia’s Belgorod Region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.
The UAV targeted a residential area in the village of Maysky, located 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the border with Ukraine, Gladkov wrote on Telegram on Saturday.
"The most terrible thing happened – a nine-year-old child has died” in the attack, he wrote. The governor expressed his condolences to the boy’s family, stressing that it would be impossible to find words to console them.
The deceased child’s mother and his seven-month-old sister required hospitalization following the incident. The woman was hit in the leg, while the baby suffered from shell shock, he said.
Gladkov also published photos of the damaged building, which show that the explosion was so powerful that it destroyed the roof and punched a large hole in one of the outer walls.
More than a dozen other settlements in Belgorod Region were targeted by artillery and UAVs during the day. Some 30 shells and over a dozen drones were used by Kiev’s forces in those attacks, he said.
A man suffered moderate wounds and was rushed to hospital after a drone strike in the village of Gruzskoe, according to the governor.
In the town of Shebekino, a UAV hit an apartment block, damaging the facade of the building and smashing windows. There was material damage in other parts of the region, too, he added.
The Russian regions of Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk, all of which border Ukraine, have been frequent targets of cross-border fire since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. Shelling and drone strikes have been aimed at energy infrastructure and residential areas, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths and injuries, as well as the destruction of property.
Ukraine has intensified the bombardment of Belgorod Region in recent months amid continued Russian advances in Donbass and the launch of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region in early August. The advance of the Ukrainian forces was swiftly halted, with the territory under their control steadily shrinking since then.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Ukraine had lost 40,460 troops and several hundred units of military equipment, including 240 tanks and 178 infantry fighting vehicles, during its operation in Kursk Region.
Kiev’s forces have also attempted to enter Belgorod Region in a similar fashion on several occasions, but have been pushed back.
