Russia-Ukraine war: At least 18 people killed and more than 110 injured in Belgorod shelling, say officials

Published

2 years ago

December 30, 2023

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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.

“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

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.

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

Sean Bell

Military analyst

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.

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.

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.”

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

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4 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

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Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

16 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

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IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

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19 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.