Seven killed in Ukrainian missile strike on Russian apartment block
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Damaged vehicles at the site of a recent military strike, what local authorities called a Ukrainian air attack.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - At least seven people were killed and 17 injured when a whole section of a multi-storey apartment block collapsed after it was struck by a Soviet-era missile launched by Ukraine and shot down by Russia, Russian officials said.
In one of the deadliest attacks to date on the region of Belgorod, Ukraine launched what Russian officials said was a massive missile attack with Tochka ballistic missiles and Adler and RM-70 Vampire (MLRS) multiple launch rocket systems.
Footage from the scene posted by Mr Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the region, showed at least 10 storeys of the building collapsing.
"The city of Belgorod and the Belgorod region were subjected to massive shelling by the armed forces of Ukraine," he said.
"As the result of a direct hit by a shell into an apartment building, the entire entrance from the tenth to the first floor collapsed."
Later, as emergency services scoured the rubble for survivors, the roof collapsed and people ran for their lives, dust and rubble falling behind them.
Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been killed and 17 injured, including two children. Others were still trapped under the rubble.
A witness at the scene said that there were many ambulances and fire engines at the site.
"A whole section of a 10-storey building collapsed," the witness told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "I see several victims. Firefighters are sorting through the rubble."
The Russian defence ministry said on May 12 that its air defence forces had destroyed two Soviet-era conventional ballistic missiles launched overnight by Ukrainian forces over the Belgorod region.
Both Ukraine and Russia say they do not target civilians, although many civilians have been killed by both sides in the war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the strike was a targeted attack on civilians which showed the criminality of both Ukraine and its backers - primarily the United States and its European allies.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces.
About 14,000 people were killed there between 2014 and the end of 2021, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including 3,106 civilians.
Russian forces earlier this month opened a new front in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, which neighbours Russia's Belgorod region which has come under repeated attack from Ukraine by drones, artillery and Ukrainian proxies.
President Vladimir Putin suggested in March that Moscow could try to establish a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory due to the attacks on Belgorod.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield accounts from either side. REUTERS
