BELGOROD, Russia
\nSix people including a one-year-old girl were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Thursday on the southern Russian city of Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
\nSeventeen other people, including four children, were hospitalized with injuries, with six in serious condition, Gladkov said, adding that two children had already been released for outpatient treatment. He said the one-year-old child\u2019s name was Valentina.
\n\u201cWe are all grieving with the families and friends of the victims,\u201d Gladkov wrote on Telegram. \u201cI want to express my sincere condolences, realizing that there are no words that can comfort this grief.\u201d
\nBelgorod is the nearest major Russian city to the border with Ukraine, and the city and surrounding region have come under frequent attack since February 2022 when Russia sent forces into Ukraine in what it calls a \u201cspecial military operation.\u201d
\nRussian authorities said 25 civilians were killed in the largest of these attacks at the end of December.
\nThe Russian health ministry said it had despatched a team of medical specialists from federal centers to Belgorod.
\nForeign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the events an \u201cact of terrorism by the Kyiv regime\u201d on Telegram and said Russia would take the case to the UN Security Council.
\nThere was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the attacks.
\nThe Russian defense ministry said its air defense systems had shot down 14 Ukrainian missiles over the Belgorod region. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
\nThe governor of the neighboring Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said a shopping mall, an outdoor sports facility and residential areas were hit. \u201cThe enemy is deliberately hitting a cluster of civilians,\u201d he said.
\nVideo posted by Russian media showed Gladkov arriving at a store called Magnit, which had nearly all its windows shattered. Additional footage showed apartment complexes with blown-out windows and emergency workers running to aid injured people at an outdoor sports complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BELGOROD, Russia Six people including a one-year-old girl were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Thursday on the southern Russian city of Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Seventeen other people, including four children, were hospitalized with injuries, with six in serious condition, Gladkov said, adding that two children had already been released for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-387308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n