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.



Hundreds of Swedish Forces Arrive in Latvia in Largest Deployment with NATO to Date

Swedish and NATO flags are seen printed on paper this illustration taken April 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Swedish and NATO flags are seen printed on paper this illustration taken April 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Hundreds of Swedish Forces Arrive in Latvia in Largest Deployment with NATO to Date

Swedish and NATO flags are seen printed on paper this illustration taken April 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Swedish and NATO flags are seen printed on paper this illustration taken April 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Hundreds of Swedish troops arrived in Latvia on Saturday to join a Canadian-led multinational brigade along NATO's eastern flank, a mission Sweden is calling its most significant operation so far as a member of the Western defense alliance.

A ship carrying parts of a mechanized infantry battalion arrived early Saturday in the port of Riga, the Latvian capital, escorted by the Swedish air force and units from the Swedish and Latvian navies, the Swedish armed forces said in a statement, The AP reported.

Latvia borders Russia to its east and Russia ally Belarus to its southeast. Tensions are high across Central Europe due to Russia's war against Ukraine.

Sweden's armed forces said the mission of 550 troops will contribute to the alliance’s deterrence and defense efforts, and ensure stability in the region, and that it “marks Sweden’s largest commitment yet since joining NATO.”

Commander Lieutenant Colonel Henrik Rosdahl of the 71st Battalion said he felt great pride in contributing to the alliance's collective defense.

"It’s a historic day, but at the same time, it’s our new normal,” he said.

The Swedish troops join one of eight NATO brigades along the alliance’s eastern flank. The battalion is stationed outside the town of Adazi, near Riga.

Sweden formally joined NATO in March as the 32nd member of the trans-Atlantic military alliance, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality and centuries of broader nonalignment with major powers as security concerns in Europe have spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Finland also abandoned its longstanding military neutrality to join NATO in April 2023, due to anxieties sparked when Russia invaded Ukraine the previous year.