Injuries reported and state of emergency imposed in Belgorod region villages, the governor said
© Sputnik / Anton Vergun
A Ukraine-originated shell has exploded in the Belgorod region of Russia, resulting in injuries, the governor of the border region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported.
In a statement on Telegram, the governor said that “there was a shot from Ukraine,” with the explosion in a Belgorod region village. The injured people “are getting all the help they need,” and the details regarding their condition will be released later.
“For the safety of the residents of Zhuravlyovka and Nekhoteevka, the administration of the Belgorod district has introduced a state of emergency in these two villages,” he wrote.
Responding to the incident, the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed his subordinates to “carefully investigate the circumstances of the incident, taking exhaustive measures to identify all those responsible.”
Wednesday’s incident is not the first time the residents of a Russian region have been affected by the ongoing military action in Ukraine.
On February 24, the day Moscow launched its offensive in the neighboring country, seven houses and one car were damaged in the Belgorod region during the explosions, which, according to the Investigative Committee, were the result “of the shelling of the Belgorod region’s territory by the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
Three people, including one child, suffered injuries which prompted the committee to initiate a criminal case “on the fact of the attempted murder of two or more people.”
Three days later, two shells, which, according to the Russian investigators, were fired by the Ukrainian security forces, fell in an open area in the village of Nekhoteevka, with no injuries or damage reported.
Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements and end the conflict with the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. Russia ended up recognizing the two as independent states, at which point they asked for military aid.
Russia demands that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two Donbass republics by force.
