Europe

Five killed in Belgorod as Zelenskiy says operation in Russia’s Kursk region is going to plan

Ukrainian shelling injures 12 others in Belgorod, with six reportedly in a serious condition

The remains of the Russian border post at the Sudzha border crossing with Ukraine. Photograph: David Guttenfelder/New York Times
Sun Aug 25 2024 - 09:06

Five civilians died and 12 others were injured after Ukraine shelled the town of Rakitnoye in Russia’s Belgorod region, the governor of the region in the country’s southwest said on Sunday.

Among the injured are three children, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Nine of the injured were hospitalised, with six of them listed in a serious condition, including a 16-year-old girl who is in intensive care

“We will definitely help everyone who suffered,” Gladkov said. “Our task now is to endure, to overcome trials, to cope with trouble.”

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Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in February 2022.

The shelling in Belgorod comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s operation across the border into Russia’s Kursk region is going according to a plan that aimed to prevent Moscow’s attempts to occupy the northeastern city of Sumy.

The incursion, which started in early August, was done to protect the Sumy region and also to capture Russian soldiers who could be used for prisoner swaps, Ukraine’s leader said. The first swap involving those Kursk-area POWs took place on Saturday with each side exchanging 115 soldiers.

“I am looking very positively how this operation is going,” Zelenskiy told journalists in Kyiv, standing alongside Poland’s president and Lithuania’s prime minister, who visited the capital to mark Ukrainian Independence Day.

“The operation is difficult but it is important that it is going according to our plan,” Zelenskiy said, without elaborating further.

[ Zelenskiy marks Ukraine’s independence day with anti-Russia laws ]

Ukraine’s incursion, the first foreign military offensive inside Russia since the second World War, caught the Kremlin off guard and has prompted tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes in the region.

Although Ukrainian forces claim to have control of more than 1,250 square kilometres of territory, Russian military commanders have not redeployed significant forces from the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region to help dislodge the assault.

Zelenskiy denied that Ukraine wants to use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in talks with Russia. At an event to mark the national holiday, he said the only process Ukraine supports is the so-called peace formula that envisages steps from food and nuclear security to a full Russian troop withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. – Bloomberg/Reuters