Five killed in Belgorod attack as Nato chief backs Ukraine’s Kursk incursion

Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is legitimate and covered by Kyiv’s right to self-defence, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly Welt am Sonntag in his first reaction to the advance into Russian territory.
“Ukraine has a right to defend itself. And according to international law, this right does not stop at the border,” Mr Stoltenberg told the paper, adding that Nato had not been informed about Ukraine’s plans beforehand and did not play a role in them.
The Nato chief said Ukraine was running a risk with the advance on to Russian territory but that it was up to Kyiv how to conduct its military campaign.
“[Ukrainian] president [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy has made clear that the operation aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further Russian attacks from across the border,” he said.
“Like all military operations, this comes with risks. But it is Ukraine’s decision how to defend itself.”
Kyiv launched a major cross-border incursion into the Kursk region on August 6th, while Moscow’s troops keep pressing towards the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
The incursion was also discussed at a meeting of the Nato-Ukraine Council on Wednesday that was requested by Kyiv amid Moscow’s biggest wave of air attacks on its neighbour.
The council, grouping members of the western military alliance and Ukraine, was established last year to enable closer co-ordination between the alliance and Kyiv.
Russia has called the Kursk operation a “major provocation” and said it would retaliate.
It comes as five people were killed and 46 injured in a Ukrainian attack on the southwestern Russian city of Belgorod late on Friday, the local governor said.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said that 37 of the injured, including seven children, were taken to hospital.
Video from a car dashboard, posted on social media and purporting to demonstrate the attack, showed another car being blown up while moving on the road. Seconds later an explosion is seen on the other side of the road. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video.
Russia’s investigation committee said on its Telegram channel that it had initiated a criminal case into the Belgorod attack.
Authorities also reported that a woman was injured on Saturday during Ukrainian shelling of the border town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region.
Ukraine has staged frequent attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions in recent months. The city has been the focal point of the attacks.
Ukraine and Russia say they do not deliberately target civilians in the war that began when Russia sent thousands of troops into its smaller neighbour in February 2022. Moscow has called the invasion a “special military operation”.
On Friday, a Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv hit a residential building and a playground on Friday, killing seven people and injuring at least 77 more, local authorities said.
Mr Zelenskiy said a 14-year-old girl was among the dead. Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, had earlier said on Telegram that one child was killed in the playground.
The 12-storey apartment block caught fire as a result of the strike, the mayor said. The death toll from the attack climbed to seven when a woman’s body was recovered from the rubble, he added in a later statement.
About 20 of the injured were in severe condition, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
One end of the block was engulfed in black smoke, with many of the upper floors in flames. Several cars parked outside were gutted by fire.
Emergency services and rescue volunteers rushed to carry survivors out of the building. The body of one of the victims lay under a carpet on the ground outside, surrounded by police.
Residents of all ages, some of them covered in blood, sat stunned on benches and walls outside as medics attended to their injuries.
Kharkiv has been the focus of heavy Russian bombing throughout the war, although there had been a drop in intensity in recent weeks, possibly related to a shock incursion launched by Ukrainian forces into Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian authorities said that Friday’s attack involved five aerial guided bombs launched from planes in Russia’s Belgorod region, also known as “glide bombs” which are fitted with a navigation system taking them to their targets.
The weapons are hard to intercept and they have become a fearsome tool in the war in eastern Ukraine in recent months that can cause huge devastation.
In the wake of the Kharkiv strike, Mr Zelenskiy renewed a call on western allies to allow Ukraine to use long-range western weapons to attack Russian military airbases.
“A strike … would not have happened if our defence forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based,” Mr Zelenskiy said on Telegram. “There is no rational reason to restrict Ukraine’s defences.” – Reuters