Russia-Ukraine war: At least 18 people killed and more than 110 injured in Belgorod shelling, say officials
At least 18 people – including two children – have been killed and more than 110 have been injured during shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod, officials in Moscow say.
They have accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack – a day after an 18-hour aerial Russian barrage across Ukraine killed at least 39 people.
Russia’s foreign ministry has requested a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss what officials have called the “indiscriminate” shelling of Belgorod, according to the state-run news agency, RIA.
Firefighters in Belgorod. Pic: Russia Emergency Situations Ministry telegram channel via AP
“The terrorist attack in Belgorod will be the subject of proceedings in the UN Security Council,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is reported to have said.
While Kyiv never acknowledges responsibility for attacks on Russian territory or the occupied Crimean Peninsula, larger aerial strikes against Russia have previously followed heavy assaults on Ukrainian cities.
Images of Belgorod on social media showed cars on fire and plumes of black smoke rising among damaged buildings as air raid sirens sounded.
Read more: Ukraine-Russia war latest
Firefighters in Belgorod. Pic: Russia Emergency Situations Ministry telegram channel via AP
A person is carried away after the shelling in the Russian city
Belgorod is a Russian city on the border with Ukraine
One strike hit close to a public ice rink in the heart of the city.
Earlier on Saturday, officials in Russia reported shooting down 32 Ukrainian drones over the country’s Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol and Kursk regions.
They also reported that cross-border shelling had killed two people in Russia – one man in the Belgorod area and a nine-year-old in the Bryansk region.
Pic: Governor of Russia’s Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov via Telegram/Reuters
Pic: Russia Emergency Situations Ministry telegram channel via AP
Russia launches missiles and drones
Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes against Ukraine continued on Saturday.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported 10 Shahed drones had been shot down across the Kherson, Khmelnytskyi and Mykolaiv regions.
On Friday, Moscow’s forces launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones across Ukraine, an onslaught described by one air force official as the biggest aerial barrage of the war.
Ukrainian officials said 39 people had been killed – a figure that is expected to rise as the extensive rubble is cleared – with another 160 people wounded.
Russia’s recent aerial assault on Ukraine may have cost up to $1bn
It would appear Russia tested the Ukrainian air defences this past few weeks with small-scale attacks to establish where the clusters of air defence capability lie, before launching a massive, co-ordinated attack.
But what was Russia seeking to target?
Although Ukraine understandably highlights the damage inflicted on Ukrainian hospitals and schools, it is hard to believe Russia would “waste” scarce (and expensive) missiles on targets that do not further its war aims.
Instead, Valerii Zaluzhnyi – the head of the Ukrainian armed forces – suggested Russia focused on military targets, transport hubs and defence infrastructure.
President Zelenskyy desperately needs weapons and ammunition if Ukraine is to prevail in its war with Russia, and has made clear his intent to develop a national Defence Industrial Base.
However, factories take months or years to build, and a single bomb to destroy, so it is very likely that Ukraine’s fledgling defence industry was a priority target.
And, the single wave of attacks probably comprised over $1bn (£785m) of Russian missile capability, so Russia would have wanted to ensure the majority hit their intended targets which explains its detailed preparation.
To meet its munition demands, Russia is securing over one million rounds of artillery from North Korea, and drones and missiles from Iran. And, Russia is leveraging its significant Defence Industrial Base to increase production rates, funded by its oil revenues.
However, Ukraine has very limited potential to meet its own wartime requirements, and without Western long-term support, its military prospects are bleak.
Army chief General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said the attack targeted critical infrastructure and industrial and military facilities.
A maternity hospital, flat blocks and schools were also damaged in the attack, according to officials.
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Poland’s defence forces said on Friday that an unknown object had entered the country’s air space before vanishing from radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile.
Poland’s deputy foreign minister summoned Russian ambassador Andrei Ordash on Friday to discuss the alleged breach of Poland’s airspace.
Several Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, were hit in strikes on Friday
However, Mr Ordash said Poland had provided no proof of Russian involvement.
In a statement, published by the state-owned RIA news agency, Mr Ordash said: “I was handed a note which contained an unsubstantiated claim that allegedly on the morning of 29 December, an airborne object violated Polish airspace, which Polish specialists identified as a Russian guided missile.
“No proof was presented. My request for documented proof of what was in the note was refused.”
Thousands of troops are taking part in a joint military exercise between Russia and Belarus, as tensions with the EU run high following a Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace earlier this week.
The Zapad joint military exercise which began on Friday will involve drills in both Russia and Belarus as well as in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Belarusian defence officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the drill, but in May, its defence ministry said that would be cut nearly in half.
It comes just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down Russian drones over its airspace.
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Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday morning hit back at a suggestion by US President Donald Trump on Thursday that the incursion may have been a “mistake”.
He said in a post on X: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of the incursions and that it had not intended to hit any targets in Poland.
Friday also saw Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper travelling to Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on the same day the UK announced fresh sanctions against Moscow.
Prince Harry was also in Kyiv for a surprise visit to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
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Prince Harry arrives in Kyiv
Ms Cooper, who was appointed foreign secretary last week, posted about her visit on X saying: “The UK’s support for Ukraine is steadfast. I am pleased to be in Kyiv on my first visit as Foreign Secretary.”
The UK’s new sanctions include bans on 70 vessels that Britain says are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil in defiance of sanctions already in place.
Yvette Cooper with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Pic: Valentyn Ogirenko/PA
Some 30 individuals and companies – including Chinese and Turkey-based firms – have also been sanctioned for their part in supplying Russia with electronics, chemicals, explosives and other weapons components.
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Meanwhile on the frontline, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s oil-loading Primorsk port overnight, an SBU official said.
The attack caused fires and suspended oil-loading operations, the official added.
Russian defence systems also intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a spokesperson for the royal has said.
Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army, visited the city at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.
The Duke of Sussex travelled to the capital to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
Pic: Railway of Ukraine Ukrzaliznytsia/AP
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will also be travelling to Kyiv on Friday in what will be her first foreign trip since being appointed to the job last week.
Her visit coincides with the UK launching a new package of Russia-related sanctions targeting ships carrying Russian oil as well as companies and individuals supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used to make Russian weapons.
It comes as Russia and Belarus began a major joint military exercise on on NATO’s doorstep on Friday, just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down suspected Russian drones over its airspace.
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Drones shot down in Poland
The Zapad-2025 exercise – a show of force by Russia and its close ally – will involve drills in both countries and in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Meanwhile on the frontline, Russian defence systems intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight,
including nine over the Moscow region, the ministry said on Friday.
The duke told the Guardian while on an overnight train to Kyiv: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.
“We can continue to humanise the people involved in this war and what they are going through.
“We have to keep it in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”
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Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, previously travelled to Ukraine in April, when he visited war victims as part of his work with wounded veterans.
The prince visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopaedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians.
Earlier this week, Harry said the King is “great” after he reunited with him at Clarence House for a private tea.
It was their first meeting in 19 months and lasted just 54 minutes.
The last time the father and son saw each other was in February 2024 when the prince flew to the UK after the monarch announced his cancer diagnosis.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have lived in California since they quit roles as senior working royals in March 2020.
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.
The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is currently under house arrest in the capital, Brasilia.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence several hours after they found the 70-year-old guilty on five counts.
The counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.
Bolsonaro‘s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.
Pic: AP
The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government – with Donald Trump already sharing his thoughts on the vote.
President Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro, has said he was surprised and “very unhappy” with the decision.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro “outstanding” and said the conviction is “very bad for Brazil”.
Mr Trump previously called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes, and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday, he was seen at the garage of his property, but did not talk to the media.
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Justice Carmen Lucia. Pic: AP
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia, and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.
On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.
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Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro, saying: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”
Bolsonaro had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.
He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.
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