The death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike on western Russia’s Belgorod region earlier this week has risen to eight people, Russian authorities said Wednesday.
In one of the deadliest recent attacks inside Russia, six people were killed Monday when drones struck two vans and a car near the village of Berezovka, around 7 kilometers from the Ukraine border, Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The agricultural company Agro-Belogorye previously said seven of its workers were killed and 32 others wounded in the strike.
“Another civilian has died from the drone attack in the Borisovsky district on May 6,” Gladkov said on Telegram, adding that a man died at the hospital after being “seriously injured.” He did not specify whether the man was an employee of Agro-Belogorye.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced Monday’s drone strike as a “terrorist attack” and claimed that Ukrainian drones targeted the same area “after the arrival of medics, police, rescuers, and journalists.”
Gladkov said Wednesday that 33 of the victims, including three children, remained at the hospital.
Agro-Belogorye said funerals for the seven workers confirmed killed — which included four women and three men — were held earlier on Wednesday.
Belgorod has been repeatedly targeted by what Russian officials have called indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks on civilians since Moscow invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.
Monday’s drone strike was the deadliest in the Belgorod region since the New Year’s Eve shelling of the city of Belgorod, which killed at least 21 and wounded 110 others.
