Russian officials say Belgorod airstrike killed 19 people and injured dozens
Russian officials said Ukrainian missiles struck the Belgorod border area this weekend, killing at least 19 people and injuring 27 others.
Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on telegraph According to him, 15 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a residential building that collapsed after a “barbaric” Ukrainian missile attack. He said 27 people were injured in the attack.
Three more civilians were killed in separate shelling on Sunday night, he said, adding that a woman injured in Saturday’s attack also died.
Scenes of collapsed apartments after a missile attack in Belgorod, Russia, on May 12, 2024.
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The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russian air defense systems repelled the attack, destroying six Tochka-U missiles, four Vampire multiple rocket rockets and two Vilkha multiple rocket rockets. “Fragments of a downed Tochka-U missile damaged a residential building in the city of Belgorod,” the ministry said. Say it on Telegram.
CNBC was unable to verify the report and Ukraine had no immediate comment. Both Moscow and Kiev deny deliberately targeting civilians.
— Holly Elliot
Russia claims gains in fierce fighting in northeastern Ukraine
On May 12, 2024, the Kharkiv Coordination Volunteer Center, together with the national police and emergency services, was conducting an evacuation of the frontline city on the border with Russia in the Kharkiv region of Vovchansk, Ukraine.
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The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have made more progress in Ukraine’s Kharkov region after Russian troops launched a new offensive in the northeastern region of Ukraine.
ministry said on telegram On Sunday, its troops “penetrated deep into the enemy’s defenses” and “liberated” the occupied villages of Gatyšce, Krasnoye, Morokhovets and Olenikovo in the Kharkiv region.
On Saturday, the ministry said the border villages of Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilechna had been captured. It also claimed that the village of Kramyk in the Donetsk region had been captured.
More than 4,500 civilians in the Kharkiv area have been evacuated On Friday, Russian troops crossed the border and launched a major offensive there. Questions have been raised about why Russian forces have been able to advance so easily in the area, but a Ukrainian government spokesman told the BBC on Monday that the captured villages were long-abandoned “zombie” villages.
On May 12, 2024, Russian troops attempted to capture Wovchansk and launched artillery and air strikes on Kharkov, Ukraine, as volunteers and police evacuated the city’s residents.
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Russia wants to capture the region, which includes Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, to create a so-called “buffer zone” to protect its border areas from Ukraine’s intensified attacks in recent months.
Ukrainian officials widely expected an offensive and had sent reinforcements to the area, but President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the West to provide military aid as soon as possible. As part of an unprecedented $61 billion U.S. aid package, Russia is trying to achieve as much as possible before Western military supplies arrive.
— Holly Elliot
Putin replaces long-time Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu
Russian President Vladimir Putin moved long-time ally Sergey Shoigu from the Defense Ministry to the country’s powerful Security Council in a government reshuffle.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (left) attend the Victory Day military parade in Red Square.
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Russian economist Andrei Belousov will serve as Russia’s new defense minister, while Shoigu will replace Nikolay Patrushev, another long-time Putin ally, as secretary of the powerful Security Council. The agency is responsible for advising the president on national security policy. The Kremlin said Patrushev would take another post.
Shoigu has been defense minister since 2012, taking office without any military experience and overseeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin remained loyal to Shoigu despite criticism of Russia’s military leadership during the war by some Russian commentators, most notably Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. Prigozhin died in a plane crash last August. The Kremlin denies any involvement in his death.
The appointment of former Economic Development Minister Belousov is bound to attract attention in military circles, but at the same time, Putin hopes to consolidate the war-readiness status of the Russian economy and defense spending surges.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the appointment of a civilian as defense minister was motivated by the need for “innovation.”
“On today’s battlefield, the winner is the one who is more open to innovation… Therefore, at this stage, the president has decided to appoint a civilian as defense minister,” the Peskov news agency said. TASS reports.
The Kremlin said Russia’s top general and chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov will remain in his post.
— Holly Elliot
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