Blasts kill 3 in Russian border city, Ukraine hits base in the south

KYIV/KONSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine, July 3 (Reuters) – At least three people were killed and dozens of homes damaged by blasts in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, the regional governor said on Sunday, while Ukrainian forces struck a Russian military base in occupied southern Ukraine.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported several explosions in the city of nearly 400,000, some 40 km (25 miles) north of the border with Ukraine. read more

At least 11 apartment buildings and 39 houses were damaged, including five that were destroyed, Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

“The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming,” a resident of the city told Reuters, adding the blasts occurred around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT)

“The missile hit residential buildings about 20 metres from my house,” the resident said. “All the windows in our house were shattered, the doors came out of alignment.”

Senior Russian lawmaker Andrei Klishas accused Ukraine of shelling Belgorod and called for a stern response.

“The death of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Belgorod are a direct act of aggression on the part of Ukraine and require the most severe – including a military – response,” Klishas wrote on Telegram.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of numerous attacks on Belgorod and other regions bordering Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility but has described the incidents as payback and “karma” for Russia’s actions.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine and Reuters could not independently verify the Russian accounts.

In the Russian-occupied southern Ukraine city of Melitopol, Ukrainian forces hit a military base with more than 30 strikes on Sunday, the city’s exiled mayor said in a video address on Telegram.

The base had been “taken out of action”, Ivan Fedorov said.

A Moscow-installed official said several private residential houses near the airfield were damaged.

“Shells fell on the territory of the airfield. There were no casualties,” Evgeny Balitsky, head of the Russia-installed council in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, wrote on Telegram.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said its air force had flown some 15 sorties “in virtually all directions of hostilities”.

“About 20 units of enemy equipment and two field ammunition depots were destroyed.”

Reuters could not immediately verify the accounts.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and cities levelled since Russia invaded in what Ukraine its Western allies say is an unprovoked war of aggression. Russia denies targeting civilians in what President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its neighbour.