On this picture launched by Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov’s Telegram channel on Might 12, 2024, a view of {a partially} collapsed block of flats after a missile assault by the Ukrainian Armed Forces within the Russian metropolis of Belgorod.
| Photograph Credit score: AP

An house constructing partially collapsed within the Russian border metropolis of Belgorod on Sunday, inflicting at the very least 13 deaths and injuring 20 different folks, officers stated.

They blamed Ukrainian shelling for the constructing’s destruction.

On-line footage confirmed rescuers trying to find survivors among the many remnants of the constructing’s stairwell, then fleeing the scene as a part of the roof crashed to the bottom. Russia’s Emergency Conditions Ministry stated 13 our bodies had been recovered from the rubble up to now.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation’s prime regulation enforcement company, stated in a press release that the 10-story constructing had been hit by Ukrainian shelling.

The Russian Defence Ministry later wrote on social media that the constructing had been broken by fragments of a downed Tochka-U TRC missile. It additionally stated that air defences had shot down a number of extra rockets over the Belgorod area, in addition to two drones that have been destroyed in a separate incident later Sunday.

Air raid alerts continued throughout Belgorod as rescuers labored. Town additionally got here underneath fireplace Saturday night, killing one individual and wounding 29 others, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov stated.

Cities throughout western Russia have come underneath common assault from drones since Might 2023, with Russian officers blaming Kyiv. Ukrainian officers by no means acknowledge accountability for assaults on Russian territory or the Crimean Peninsula.

The Belgorod area, on Russia’s western border, has been the goal of a lot of strikes. Though most cross-border shelling is seen in rural areas, assaults have additionally been seen on the area’s capital.

In December 2023, shelling within the coronary heart of Belgorod metropolis killed 25 folks, prompting authorities to start out erecting public shelters.