Explosions hit the FSB building in the Russian border city of Belgorod, according to reports, a day after a pro-Ukrainian group of partisans launched an extraordinary cross-border raid.
Pro-Russian social media channels said buildings housing the Interior Ministry and the FSB security service had come under attack in Belgorod.
“According to our sources, in Belgorod, the targets of the attack were the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB,” Kremlin-affiliated Rybar Telegram channel reported, adding that, “the impact of the strikes is unknown”.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Tuesday that drones had been shot down over the region by anti-aircraft weaponry.
There has been fighting in the area, which borders Ukraine, since Monday, after what Russian officials called a Ukrainian “sabotage group” crossed into Russia and appeared to seize a number of settlements in a highly unusual raid.
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09:37 AM
Russian investigators open ‘terrorism case’ over cross-border attack from Ukraine
Russian investigators said they had opened a terrorism investigation after what they said was a cross-border attack on Russia’s Belgorod region mounted by what they called Ukrainian armed groups.
Kyiv has denied involvement in the attack.
Fighting broke out in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, on Monday.
09:18 AM
Pictured: An elderly displaced Bakhmut resident cries as she visits a support centre in Kyiv
09:10 AM
Zelensky congratulates marines on frontline
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he visited frontline troops to congratulate them on the Day of the Ukrainian Marines.
Zelensky posted photos online showing him presenting awards and posing for a group photograph with marines in a dimly lit location.
“Our defenders. Frontline. Today I am here to congratulate our warriors on the Day of the Ukrainian Marines,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
08:52 AM
The story of the battle for Bakhmut through the eyes of those who fought it
It is more than a year ago now, but Yana Olha says she will never forget the day the war came to Bakhmut.
“It was near my birthday, so springtime, when explosions hit. We have seen fighting since 2014, but this time the fear was worse,” said the 35-year-old Donbas native.
“My elderly mother and father were alone, my husband had to go and save them. I waited at home fearing that I would never see the three of them again. I walked up and down like a madman.”
Those explosions were only the very beginning of what may prove to be the pivotal battle of this war.
Read more from Roland Oliphant and Verity Bowman here
08:33 AM
Ukraine says it still holds part of Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces still control the southwestern edge of the city of Bakhmut and fighting in the city itself has decreased, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister, has said.
She wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv’s forces had made some progress “on the flanks to the north and south of Bakhmut” and that Russian forces, which say they have taken the city itself, were continuing to clear areas they control.
08:15 AM
Latest MoD update
08:14 AM
Ukraine in pictures:
08:08 AM
Russian Prime Minister arrives in China
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China, Moscow’s foreign ministry said, for a visit in which he will meet with President Xi Jinping and ink a series of deals on infrastructure and trade.
Mishustin arrived late Monday in Shanghai, the ministry said, where he was greeted at the airport by Moscow’s ambassador to China Igor Morgulov and Beijing’s top diplomat to Russia Zhang Hanhui.
He will take part in a Russian-Chinese Business Forum and visit a petrochemical research institute in Shanghai, the Kremlin said, as well as hold talks with “representatives of Russian business circles”.
That forum has invited a number of sanctioned Russian tycoons – including from the key fertiliser, steel and mining sectors – as well as Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who handles energy issues, Bloomberg reported.
08:07 AM
Good Morning
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