Kremlin Says 4 Dead After "Deliberate" Ukrainian Missile Attack On Russian Border City

However, as BBC also notes, "Ukraine dismissed the claim, saying the Russians had lied about similar incidents in the past."

Belgorod is near Ukraine's large northern city of Kharkiv. Lying just 25 miles north across the Ukrainian border, the major city in Russia's south has 370,000 residents.

It's not the first time potentially 'errant' missiles have struck Russian territory - or also it's not the first time Russia has accused Ukraine of a deliberate cross-border attack, but the damage and death toll is the most significant and extensive thus far, with a major emergency response at the scenes of impact ongoing.

An Al Jazeera war reporter inside Ukraine said of the alleged incident: "We are trying to piece together exactly what happened through social media reports. Al Jazeera cannot confirm anything that either side is saying at this point."

Correspondent Alan Fisher added: "What appears is that somewhere around 25 missiles were fired towards the airport which is a Russian base in Belgorod. It appears that some of those missiles may have hit a residential area. That’s certainly what the media is saying …"

If this figure of a volley of more than two dozen rockets proves accurate, it would indeed strongly suggest the Russian city was deliberately targeted, and wasn't merely an incident with a few errant missiles.

Meanwhile, some observers are speculating that Ukraine could possibly have used recently provided US long-range rockets to hit deep within Russia's borders, which if true would signal massive escalation in the war.

Starting a week ago, Ukraine began touting that its US-suppled M142 HIMARS, a high mobility artillery rocket system with a range of 40-50 miles (the range of the version of the system Washington transferred last month), is having success against Russian forces on the battlefield.

Reports today that Ukraine is using US missile systems to strike inside Russia (Belgorod) – which would be exactly the thing that the Biden Administration claimed it received "assurances" that Ukraine would not do if it received the missile systems. Gee, who could've predicted

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 3, 2022

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kremlin-says-4-dead-after-deliberate-ukrainian-missile-attack-russian-border-city