MOSCOW (Reuters) -One man was killed and seven people were wounded on Tuesday in a Ukrainian attack on the city and region of Belgorod, near Russia’s border with Ukraine, the Defence Ministry and regional officials said.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the man was killed by a missile that landed next to his car, and that four people had been wounded at an auto market.
In all, officials said Russian air defences had shot down 17 Ukrainian “air targets” including rockets fired from multiple missile launchers, and that a number of houses and cars had been damaged.
Heavy Russian missile and drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv killed at least five people on Tuesday and wounded dozens, causing widespread damage, Ukrainian officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said on Monday that Ukrainian bombardment of Belgorod on Saturday, in which Russia says 25 civilians were killed, “will not go unpunished”.
Since Friday, when Moscow carried out what Kyiv said was its heaviest night of bombing since the war began almost two years ago, Kyiv says Russia has launched well over 300 attack drones and missiles of various kinds at cities across Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian reports.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Nick Macfie)