Six killed in Ukrainian missile strike on Russia's Belgorod - health ministry

Six people including a child were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Thursday on Russia's southern city of Belgorod, the Russian health ministry said. The ministry said an additional 17 people, including four children, were injured and that a team of medical specialists from federal centres had been despatched to the city.

Six people including a child were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Thursday on Russia's southern city of Belgorod, the Russian health ministry said.

The ministry said an additional 17 people, including four children, were injured and that a team of medical specialists from federal centres had been despatched to the city. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

The governor of the neighbouring Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said a shopping mall, an outdoor sports facility and residential areas were hit. "The enemy is deliberately hitting a cluster of civilians," he said.

Video posted by Russian media showed regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov arriving at the destroyed Magnit store, 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. Belgorod is the nearest major Russian city to the border with Ukraine, and the city and surrounding region have come under frequent attack in the course of the war. Russian authorities said 25 civilians were killed in the biggest of these at the end of December.

The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems had shot down 14 Ukrainian missiles over the Belgorod region. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.