Russia says at least six people have died in building collapse in Belgorod | News about the Russia-Ukraine war

The Russian regional governor accuses Ukraine of bombing residential buildings in the city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine.

At least six people were killed and 20 others injured when a building collapsed in the Russian border town of Belgorod, Russian officials said.

A video released on Sunday by Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief showed firefighters and rescuers working on a huge pile of rubble. The ministry said six bodies were recovered from the rubble.

“According to the latest data, the number of injured is 20 people,” the Russian state news agency TASS quoted the emergency services as saying.

The Ministry of Civil Protection had previously announced that twelve people, including two children, had been rescued from the construction site.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted a video on Telegram showing a collapsed building with a large hole in it.

“After direct shelling of a residential building… the entire entrance, from the tenth to the ground floor, collapsed,” Gladkov said, condemning “massive bombings” by the Ukrainian army.

There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military.

A resident told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that she was in a building corridor and her husband was in a bedroom when the explosion struck.

“He didn’t have time (to escape),” she said, adding that her husband was injured in the head and face.

Air raid alerts continued across Belgorod as rescue workers searched for victims in the rubble.

The Russian Defense Ministry later wrote on social media that the building was damaged by fragments of a launched Tochka-U TRC missile. It also said air defenses shot down several more missiles over the Belgorod region, as well as two drones that were destroyed in a separate incident.

The Belgorod region on Russia’s western border has been the target of numerous attacks.

Although most of the cross-border shelling was seen in rural areas, there were also attacks on the capital of the Belgorod region, the city of Belgorod, which came under fire on Saturday evening, killing one person and wounding 29 others, Governor Gladkov said in the social media. In December 2023, a shelling in the heart of the city killed 25 people, prompting authorities to begin building public shelters.

Cities across western Russia have been regularly attacked by drones since May 2023, with Russian officials blaming Kiev.

Ukrainian officials have not acknowledged responsibility for attacks on Russian territory or the Crimean peninsula.