The governor of the Belgorod region, which is regularly subjected to attacks from Ukraine, announced on Saturday that the Ukrainian bombing of the Russian border town of Chepekino resulted in the deaths of five people.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said: “Four bodies were recovered from under the rubble” of a partially collapsed house in Chepekino, and a woman died in hospital.
The governor added that six civilians were injured in the bombings that occurred late in the evening.
Russian emergency services released photos of a crane and rescuers searching through the rubble of a five-storey building that was destroyed overnight.
Chebykino is a city of 40,000 located near the border with Ukraine, less than 100 kilometers from Kharkiv, the second Ukrainian city whose eponymous district has been the target of an attack by Russian forces since May 10.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his army launched the offensive in Kharkiv to create a buffer zone protecting Russian border villages. Ukraine, for its part, claims that it is striking Russian territory in this region to protect itself.
Since Russia launched its military assault on Ukraine in 2022, Belgorod has suffered several waves of attacks that Kiev says are a response to Moscow's large-scale attack.
