Ukrainian shelling of a town in the southwestern Belgorod region on Thursday morning killed two people, local authorities said.
A woman was killed instantly in the attack on Shebekino, located near the border with Ukraine, while a man later died at the hospital after being badly wounded, according to Belgorod region Governor Vyachslav Gladkov.
Shebekino is a town of around 40,000 people and has faced regular attacks from northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than three years ago.
Unconfirmed reports from Telegram news channels with links to Russian security services claimed that the man killed on Thursday was the father of a soldier fighting in Ukraine’s Azov Battalion.
Law enforcement authorities in Russia had allegedly pressed criminal charges against the man’s son in absentia after he was said to have been filmed shooting Russian soldiers in the legs.
The Moscow Times could not independently verify that report.
Separately, Gladkov said Thursday that another man and woman were wounded when drone debris from a destroyed Ukrainian drone crashed in the city of Belgorod.
The governor canceled World War II battle commemorations this coming Saturday, citing security concerns over the increasing number of Ukrainian attacks.
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