WHO’S ATTACKING WESTERN RUSSIA?
Over the border, in the western Russian town of Shebekino, shelling overnight and into the morning wounded eight people and damaged buildings, the local Belgorod region’s governor said.
Belgorod has come under repeated attack over the border in recent months, with some villages briefly seized in May during an incursion. Moscow blames Ukrainian “terrorists” and its army, but Kyiv says anti-Putin Russian volunteers are at work.
“In Shebekino district, there is ongoing shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video posted on Telegram.
The mayor of Belgorod city, 33km from Shebekino, said evacuation points were being prepared for Shebekino residents, with 134 people already registered.
Russia says Ukrainian shelling of its border areas has increased in recent weeks, in parallel with its intensified missile and drone attacks on Kyiv.
President Vladimir Putin’s government claims to have annexed parts of east and south Ukraine in a “special military operation” to “denazify” its neighbour, protect Russian speakers and defend its borders from aggressive Western ambitions.
Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Putin of a barbaric invasion and imperialist-style land grab.
At a European summit in Moldova, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed his case for Ukraine to be part of the NATO military alliance and reiterated his appeal for Western fighter jets to bolster his army.
“You supported our people, our refugees who fled in the first days of the war, and we will never forget it,” Zelenskyy told his host, Moldovan President Maia Sandu. “Our future is in the EU. Ukraine is ready to join NATO.”
Source: CNA
