At least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private homes were damaged, while five houses were completely destroyed, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. Mr Gladkov had earlier said the city of nearly 400,000 was rocked by a series of explosions, adding: “Probably, the air defense system worked.” At least four people were injured and two were hospitalized, including a 10-year-old boy, he said. The reports could not be independently verified. Ukraine has also yet to officially react to the incident. Senior Russian politician Andrei Klisas blamed Ukraine for the Belgorod attack and called for a military response. “The death of civilians and the destruction of political infrastructure in Belgorod is a direct act of aggression on the part of Ukraine and requires the harshest – including military – response,” Mr. Klisas wrote on Telegram. However, this is not the first time that Moscow has accused Kyiv of attacking a border region. Although Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, it has described them as retaliation for their invasion. The reported explosions came as an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted on Sunday that Kyiv could lose control of a key bastion in eastern Luhansk province to Moscow. And earlier on Saturday, Ukraine’s state emergency service investigating the June 27 bombing of a shopping mall in Kremenchuk found up to 29 body fragments in the wreckage. The bombing had claimed 21 lives and injured 66. Russian President Vladimir Putin had said troops intended to strike a nearby weapons depot, denying the mall was a target. Thousands of civilians have been killed and cities flattened since Russia invaded what Mr Putin described as a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “de-nitrogenize” Ukraine. Moscow is now focused on driving Ukrainian forces out of Donetsk and Luhansk, with its army closing in on the latter city of Lysychansk. While a Ukrainian military spokesman said the town had not been captured by Russian forces, Moscow separatist leader Rodion Miroshnik told Russian television that “Lysychansk has been brought under control,” though he added that it “has not yet been liberated.” Earlier, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the Ukrainian president admitted that the city may fall. “I’m not ruling out any of the many outcomes here,” he said. “Things will become much clearer in a day or two.” Additional reporting from the wires The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable and we first ran our Refugees campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this report in the wake of the evolving Ukrainian crisis, we call on the government to go further and faster to ensure the provision of aid. To find out more about our Refugee Campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate, click here for our GoFundMe page
