Ukraine war: Kremlin says 20 dead after attack on Russian city

Ukraine has carried out a series of deadly air strikes on targets in south-west Russia over the past 24 hours, according to Russian officials.

Latest reports say four people have been killed in Belgorod and Bryansk – with children among the victims.

The Russian defence ministry also said it had destroyed dozens of missiles and drones fired into its territory by Ukraine.

The attacks follow Russian strikes on Ukraine which killed 39 people.

Nearly 160 people were injured as Russia attacked with missiles and drones on Friday – including the capital Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Lviv.

The strikes were described by Kyiv as Russia’s biggest missile bombardment of the war so far against Ukraine.

In an update on Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said nearly 120 villages and cities were attacked, including hundreds of “civilian objects” damaged.

Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitchsko said seven more bodies had been pulled from the rubble of a warehouse that had been hit – taking the total number of killed in the city to 16.

He described Friday’s attacks on Ukraine as the deadliest for civilians in the capital, declaring a day of mourning would be held in Kyiv on Monday.

The Russian border region of Belgorod has come under alleged Ukrainian attack before.

Belgorod city – its administrative centre – is 80km (50 miles) north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which itself came under heavy fire from Russian forces on Friday morning.

An initial statement from the Russian defence ministry on Saturday said 13 missiles were destroyed over the wider region overnight.

Later, it said 32 drones had been shot down overnight in the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions.

The regional governor said two children were killed in Belgorod on Saturday, and several other people had been injured.

He earlier said a man had died in the city after a house was hit. He added that four people were being treated for wounds and the water supply in the city of Belgorod was disrupted.

The governor of Bryansk region meanwhile said two villages were targeted and a child, born in 2014, had been killed.

He said the attacks had damaged 55 homes, two private businesses, a football ground, a leisure centre and a pre-school.

Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of being behind drone strikes in recent months, though Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for these.

Ukrainian media is reporting that more than 70 drones were used in Friday’s strikes and only military targets were attacked – citing sources from Ukraine’s intelligence services.

The reports say explosions were heard in regions including Moscow, Belgorod, Tula and Tver, while in Bryansk a group of drones successfully hit a electronic factory used to make Russian military equipment like long-range missiles and anti-aircraft systems.

On Friday evening, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s renewed mass-bombing campaign in Ukraine and said attacks must stop “immediately”.

Countries including the US, UK and France said hitting civilian infrastructure had violated the international rules of war.

“Rather than peace, Putin chose to mark this holiday season… with an unprecedented number of drone and missile attacks,” US representative to the UN John Kelley said.

Russia said Ukrainian air defences were to blame for causing damage to civilian buildings.