At least eight people were injured in what the governor of a southwestern Russian region on the border with Ukraine described as “endless” shelling early Thursday.
Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov accused Ukrainian forces of firing Grad missiles at the border town of Shebekino from midnight to sunrise.
Ukraine adheres to a policy of neither confirming nor denying its role in the cross-border attacks.
Gladkov said eight people sustained various types of injuries, including two women, a police officer and a security guard. One person was in critical condition, he added.
Gladkov said earlier that one of the male victims had an upper limb torn off in the incident.
“The lives of civilians and the population are in danger,” Gladkov said in a Telegram video, adding that evacuations were underway.
“Of course, you can’t do it under fire. It is necessary to wait until the end of the incursions, the end of the explosions, and the end of the risks of being wounded or killed.”
Shebekino has come under an increasing number of cross-border attacks in recent days amid expectations of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive.
On Wednesday, Gladkov announced the evacuation of 300 children from the two Belgorod region districts, including Shebekino, that have suffered the most intense attacks and an unprecedented incursion last week.
Reports of the latest shelling came as Baza, a Telegram news channel with purported links to Russia’s security services, reported on a failed attempt to storm a border checkpoint in Shebekino using tanks.
Two groups of anti-Kremlin Russians fighting on the side of Ukraine meanwhile published videos announcing fresh incursions into Russian territory Thursday.
Gladkov denied that “any enemies are on the territory of the Belgorod region.”
