by ReutersFour people were killed in two separate Ukrainian shelling attacks on towns near the border on Friday, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said, while officials in surrounding regions reported drone attacks overnight.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on a telegram that shelling had occurred in the town of Maslova Priston, about 15 kilometers (9 mi) from Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region, and that fragments had hit passing cars.
“Two women were traveling in one of them. They died on the spot from their injuries,” he said.
Gladkov later said two people were killed and six were injured when the rocket hit the town of Sobolevka, 125 km to the southeast of the first incident. He said the victims were standing outside residential buildings.
Sobolevka is 14 km from the border with Ukraine. Russian officials have reported an intensification of attacks from northern Ukraine in recent days.
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Russian officials said pro-Ukrainian forces had repeatedly shelled the town of Shebykino in the past week. Gladkov said all road and rail travel in the district has been suspended till June 30.
He said more than 2,500 people were being evacuated from the Shebekino area because it was not safe to live there.
The governor of the Bryansk region north of Belgorod said four houses were damaged by the shelling, while the head of the neighboring Kursk region said overnight drone strikes damaged some buildings.
Long-range drones struck two towns in the Smolensk region overnight, the local governor there.
Reuters could not independently verify the reported attacks.
Ukraine lifts airstrikes warning
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had repelled three cross-border attacks in the Belgorod region on Thursday by what it believed to be Ukrainian “terrorist formations”.
Ukraine denies that its military is involved in the incursions and says they are manned by Russian volunteer fighters.
Ukrainian authorities lifted air raid alerts across much of the country, and officials in Kiev said security shot down more than 30 missiles and drones launched in the early hours of Friday.
Russia has launched nearly 20 separate missile and drone attacks against the cities since the beginning of May.
Moscow denies targeting civilians or committing war crimes but its military has ravaged cities and repeatedly targeted residential areas.