Building engulfed in flame after Russian town ‘shelled’ as locals ‘abandoned’

A five-story building in the Russian town of Shebekino has been pictured engulfed in flames. Photographs shared by Russian media Shot show the blaze taking hold of the balconies and large plumes of smoke leaving the windows.

The town home to some 45,000 people is in the Belgorod region, north of the border with Ukraine, which has seen an increasing number of reports of shelling and damage to buildings.

The Russian news outlet claimed three people were injured in the region as a result of night raids.

The air defence system, it also claimed, actively worked throughout the region since the evening of Thursday.

The building in flames was one of the damages to properties reported by the news outlet, which also added a block of flats and several private buildings were damaged in the village of Razumnoe, located a 25-minute drive away from Shebekino.

In the past, the Ukrainian government has regularly denied any involvement in the attacks launched outside of its country’s border.

In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country doesn’t attack Russian territory, it’s fighting to “liberate our own legitimate territory”.

Following the drone attack on Moscow, his adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Kyiv was “pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks”, before adding “we have nothing directly to do with this”.

The increased shelling of the bordering region may be the result of actions by irregular pro-Ukraine insurgent groups carrying out cross-border raids.

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In late May, Russian officials said shelling hitting the town had caused the injury of four people.

The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, went on to claim that was the third time in a week the town had been shelled.

Earlier this month, the Russian Volunteer Corps reportedly launched an attack on the administrative building in Shebekino.

Speaking about the heavy shelling Shebekino has been subjected to in the past weeks, Oleg, a volunteer who had travelled to the town to bring food and medicines, told the Guardian: “The city is empty, there are signs of destruction all around, there are no soldiers there.

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“They are completely devastated, it’s hard to think sensibly in such stress. Even worse is the lack of water and light.”

Olga, who has been a resident there for four decades, said from a temporary shelter in Belgorod: “We have left everything. We feel like nobody is protecting us.”

The border area doesn’t appear to be defended by Russian troops, with Sergei Apanasenko, a resident, saying there is a feeling “people are forgotten and the authorities aren’t helping with evacuations”.

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