At least three people have died in a Russian city bordering Ukraine after it was allegedly hit by a missile in the early hours of this morning.
Horrific footage captured by a resident of Belgorod – a home to 370,000 people – shows a huge ball of fire rising above buildings.
At least 11 apartment blocks and 39 private houses were damaged, while five were destroyed, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced in a statement on Telegram.
A 10-year-old boy with concussion and eye bruises and a man in critical condition were rushed to a hospital after what Moscow alleged was a missile attack.
Two other people were also injured but were treated at the scene by emergency crews.
The Kremlin accused Ukraine of shelling Belgorod, which is located 25 miles north of the border.
Senior lawmaker Andrei Klishas claimed it was a war crime and demanded instant retaliation.
But Ukraine dismissed the allegations, saying the Russians had previously lied about similar incidents.
Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman Yuriy Sak told the BBC ‘our security service has many times intercepted phone calls between the Russian servicemen which prove that sometimes, most often, these types of activities are… provocations by the Russian side themselves’.
A later statement about Russia’s relations with the West and the war, Mr Klishas concluded: ‘We have only two options: either we continue to endure this [further shelling], or we conquer all of Ukraine.’
Opening up about the attack, one resident said: ‘The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming. All the windows in our house were shattered.’
It comes just days after a Ukrainian shopping centre with some 1,000 people inside was devastated by a Russian rocket.
According to the State Emergency Service, the blast in the city of Kremenchuk killed 19 civilians.
Another 66 people were injured, while 26 of them were hospitalised.
Crews said that as many as 29 body fragments have been discovered since the beginning of rescue works.
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