The Belgorod border region was shelled seven times last Monday. According to Russian claims, Ukraine is responsible for the attacks.
According to the German news website n-tv.de, citing the Russian state news agency TASS and the governor of the region, there were no injuries and no extensive destruction.
These statements have not yet been verified and/or confirmed by an independent party. Therefore, they should be considered with caution. In war, it can be advantageous for conflicting parties to deliberately spread misinformation to strengthen their own position or weaken the opponent’s.
In the past, the city of Belgorod has repeatedly been the target of battles and attacks for which Moscow blames Ukraine. During the summer of this year, there were recurrent clashes between “Russian volunteer groups” wanting to support Ukraine and Moscow’s army. In March, the “Russian Volunteer Corps” came to light, claiming to have penetrated into the Bryansk border region in Russia for the first time. It is led by Denis Nikitin (originally Kapustin), a prominent figure in the hooligan and far-right scene, as reported by the German news platform ZDF.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin (2022-08-09) 2 (cropped), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, (no changes made)
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