Ukraine hits Russian motorway in devastating artillery strike as car bursts into flames | World | News
Ukraine‘s forces have unleashed devastating artillery fire on a Russian motorway in the city of Belgorod, close to the border between the two countries.
Footage shows one car exploding into flames with debris scattered across the road.
Another vehicle is struck, leaving smoke and debris all over the windscreen of the vehicle where the camera is mounted.
One driver was forced to take evading action before driving off.
A local governor said that the artillery fire killed five people and injured 46 others,
Seven children were among the 37 people who were taken to hospital in Belgorod.
Russia‘s Foreign Ministry said that this was a “brutal terrorist attack” and said the West should distance itself from the actions of the “Kyiv regime.”
The attack comes as Ukrainian forces continue to target Russian territory in the hope that they can compromise Russia‘a advances in the east of Ukraine.
Ukraine launched an incursion into the Russian territory of Kursk earlier this month, taking control of a number of small settlements in the process.
Experts say Russian President Vladimir Putin will launch a counter-offensive in Kursk, but not straight away.
Kateryna Stepanenko of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said: “Putin is a very risk averse individual. He is extremely calculated, and he oftentimes really prefers not to make urgent, rash political decisions that would specifically impact the health of his regime.
“You would think that a country that has some of its territories face an incursion – that has been going on for over 20 days at this point – you would think that a country would use that as an opportunity to declare martial law, to declare mobilization, to declare war against Ukraine. But Russia didn’t do that.
“The biggest reason is Putin is really trying to downplay this narrative.”
NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg defended Ukraine‘s Kursk incursion on Saturday.
He said: “Ukraine has a right to defend itself. And according to international law, this right does not stop at the border,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with Die Welt published Saturday. “The Russian soldiers, tanks and bases there (Kursk) are legitimate targets under international law.”
