Shelling Kills 14 in Russia’s City of Belgorod Following Moscow’s Aerial Attacks across Ukraine

Ukrainian rescuers work among the rubble of a private building after shelling in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, 29 December 2023, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/KATERYNA KLOCHKO
Ukrainian rescuers work among the rubble of a private building after shelling in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, 29 December 2023, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/KATERYNA KLOCHKO
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Shelling Kills 14 in Russia’s City of Belgorod Following Moscow’s Aerial Attacks across Ukraine

Ukrainian rescuers work among the rubble of a private building after shelling in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, 29 December 2023, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/KATERYNA KLOCHKO
Ukrainian rescuers work among the rubble of a private building after shelling in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, 29 December 2023, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/KATERYNA KLOCHKO

Shelling in the center of the Russian border city of Belgorod killed 14 people, including two children, and injured 108 others Saturday, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Russian officials accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, which took place the day after an 18-hour aerial bombardment across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians.

Images of Belgorod on social media showed burning cars and plumes of black smoke rising among damaged buildings as air raid sirens sounded. One strike hit close to a public ice rink in the very heart of the city.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it identified the ammunition used in the strike as Czech-made Vampire rockets and Olkha cluster munitions. It provided no additional information, and The Associated Press was unable to verify its claims.

“This crime will not go unpunished,” the ministry said in a statement on social media.

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation, and that the country’s health minister, Mikhail Murashko, was ordered to join a delegation of medical personnel and rescue workers traveling to Belgorod from Moscow.

Earlier on Saturday, Moscow officials had 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 other people in Russia. A man died and four other people were injured when a missile struck a private home in the Belgorod region late Friday evening and a 9-year-old was killed in a separate incident in the Bryansk region.

Cities across western Russia have come under regular attack from drones since May, with Russian officials blaming Kyiv. Ukrainian officials never acknowledge responsibility for attacks on Russian territory or the Crimean Peninsula. However, larger aerial strikes against Russia have previously followed heavy assaults on Ukrainian cities.

Russian drone strikes against Ukraine continued Saturday, with the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reporting that 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones had been shot down across the Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, and Mykolaiv regions.

Shelling also killed a 43-year-old man in Stepnohirsk, a town in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Gov. Yuriy Malashko said on social media.

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.

As well as the 39 deaths, at least 160 people were wounded and an unknown number were buried under rubble in the assault, which damaged a maternity hospital, apartment blocks, and schools.

Western officials and analysts recently warned that Russia limited its cruise missile strikes for months in an apparent effort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter, hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit.

Fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) line of contact.

Russia’s ongoing aerial attacks have also sparked concern for Ukraine’s neighbors.

Poland’s defense forces said Friday that an unknown object had entered the country’s airspace before vanishing off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile.

Speaking to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Russia’s charge d’affaires in Poland, Andrei Ordash, said Saturday that Moscow would not comment on the event until Warsaw had given the Kremlin evidence of an airspace violation.

“We will not give any explanations until we are presented with concrete evidence because these accusations are unsubstantiated,” he said.



Iran Says Talks with US to Focus Solely on Nuclear Issue, Lifting Sanctions

Iranian newspaper front pages on the day of the highest-level Iran-US nuclear talks in years - AFP
Iranian newspaper front pages on the day of the highest-level Iran-US nuclear talks in years - AFP
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Iran Says Talks with US to Focus Solely on Nuclear Issue, Lifting Sanctions

Iranian newspaper front pages on the day of the highest-level Iran-US nuclear talks in years - AFP
Iranian newspaper front pages on the day of the highest-level Iran-US nuclear talks in years - AFP

Iran's foreign ministry said Sunday that talks with the United States slated for next weekend will remain "indirect" with Omani mediation, and focused solely on the nuclear issue and lifting of sanctions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held talks Saturday in Muscat, marking the highest-level Iran-US nuclear negotiations since the collapse of a 2015 accord.

They agreed to meet again in seven days.

"Negotiations will continue to be indirect. Oman will remain the mediator, but we are discussing the location of future negotiations," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in an interview with state TV.

He said the talks would only focus on "the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions," and that Iran "will not have any talks with the American side on any other issue."

Analysts had said the US would push to include on the agenda discussions over Iran's ballistic missile program along with Tehran's support for the "axis of resistance" -- a network of militant groups opposed to Israel, AFP reported.

Tehran has, however, maintained it will talk only about its nuclear program.

Donald Trump in 2018 pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term as US president.

He reimposed sweeping economic sanctions against Iran, which continued to adhere to the agreement for a year after Washington's pullout but later began rolling back its own commitments.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

On Sunday, Iranian media largely welcomed the rare talks as a "decisive turning point" in relations between the longtime foes.

Iran's conservative Javan daily praised the US for "not seeking to expand the negotiations to non-nuclear issues".

The government-sponsored newspaper, Iran, described the discussions as "constructive and respectful," quoting Araghchi.

Meanwhile, the reformist Shargh newspaper said it was a "decisive turning point" in Iran-US relations.

The hardline Kayhan newspaper, which was largely sceptical in the days leading up to the talks, lamented that Iran does not have a "plan B" while there was "no clear prospect for an agreement with Donald Trump."

It, however, lauded the fact that the American side did not bring up "the dismantling of nuclear facilities" and "the possibility of a military attack" during the discussions.