Four explosions hit a Russian city north of Ukraine early Sunday, killing four, officials said, in the deadliest known episode affecting civilians in Russia since the start of the war. Russia s Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the blasts in Belgorod city. This is the first time that Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking a major city center on the Russian side of the border in a lethal attack despite Ukraine occasionally hitting fuel and military targets in Russia's border region. Russian officials said Ukraine had fired three Soviet-era missiles at Belgorod that were all shot down by Russian air defense systems. One fell to the ground in central Belgorod, causing the destruction, they said.
There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military, but an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, Anton Gerashchenko, said he believed Russia itself was responsible for the strike, saying it was meant to be used for propaganda. Ukraine and its international allies denounced Russia for hitting civilian infrastructure on a much larger scale since it invaded its neighbor in February.
General Konashenkov said that the missile attack was purposefully planned and carried out against the civilian population of Russian cities. A few hours later, Russia s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria V. Zakharova said that the West had prompted Kyiv to strike Russian cities in order to push us to launch retaliatory strikes. She said we have so far refrained from taking such steps, but we will be following developments very closely. If provocations continue, those who act in this way should look out for themselves. Images posted by Russian news outlets and social media showed smoke rising from parts of the city, with at least one house on fire. On Sunday a local blogger, Vladimir Kornev, said in a phone interview that Belgorodians are no longer surprised by the occasional booms of air-defense systems.