Russia Says Will Do 'Everything' to Stop Shelling of Belgorod, Fails to Elaborate

A determined-sounding Kremlin on Tuesday said it would do everything in its power to stop Ukrainian shelling of the border city of Belgorod, but failed to propose any concrete measures it intended to take.

Speaking to reporters, President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said: “Of course, our military will continue to do everything in order to minimise the danger at first and then eliminate it entirely.”

He did not elaborate further.

Belgorod has seen a dramatic increase in fatal aerial attacks in recent weeks that have forced city officials to evacuate hundreds and extend schools closure, AFP reports.

As well as the evacuations, city authorities have advised residents to tape up their windows in order to protect themselves from shattering glass.

Moscow has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy on the home front, but the recent strikes on Belgorod have brought the Ukraine conflict closer to home for Russians.

Ukrainian special forces have also been active in the region in recent weeks – a “complex mission” destroyed two Russian anti-aircraft systems in the Belgorod region on Saturday.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) released footage of the attack on Sunday, saying it had taken out two Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile complexes, each one valued at around $15m.

The head of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced on Tuesday morning that three people in the region had been injured by debris from downed Ukrainian weapons.

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‘You Will Be Left to Suffer and Die’: Rutte Warns Young Russians Against Fighting in Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stark appeal to young Russians not to fight in the war in Ukraine, saying they will be sent to the front with poor training, bad equipment and a high chance of being killed, wounded or abandoned. He backed his warning with NATO estimates that Russia is losing more than 30,000 soldiers a month – more in a single month than the Soviet Union lost during its entire 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Separately, Ukrainian authorities said the death toll from a Russian strike in Ukraine a day earlier had grown to three.

“Unfortunately, as a result of rescue operations, one more fatality was found - a man born in 1955. Sincere condolences to the family,” Khmelnytsky mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn said on social media.