Ukraine shells Russian city of Belgorod, killing civilians.

 

Rescue workers in Belgorod evacuate the wounded. Russian government photo/AP.

Ukraine has shelled and bombed the Russian city of Belgorod, killing civilians. AP. At least 14 people, including 2 children, were killed in the attack and more than 100 were wounded, according to Russian government sources. Though Belgorod has come under attack before, most attacks were at night and did not kill many people. This time Ukraine used Czech supplied rockets and cluster munitions. The attack appears to be in response to widespread Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets yesterday in one of the largest strikes of the war. Ukraine has not acknowledged the attack on Russia. 

My Comment:

This is not the first time that Belgorod has come under attack. It is, unfortunately for them, one of the few places in Russia that can come under easy attack by Ukrainian forces. However, this attack was a lot more deadly than others because it happened during the day when people were out and about. 

This attack seems designed to attack civilians directly, which is, of course, a war crime. There did not appear to be any military targets in the city streets that were hit by these rockets and cluster munitions. Given that they are unguided rockets it's very possible they just missed whatever their target was, but I am not sure if we should give the Ukrainians the benefit of the doubt. After all, they have been shelling civilian areas in the former breakaway, now Russian, oblasts for years now. 

Of course, Russia launched their own major airstrikes which also killed civilians yesterday. The difference appears to be that they were at least hitting military targets and killed civilians by accident or incidentally. This attack appears more to be a terror attack specifically targeting civilians, unless, like I mentioned above, they missed their targets. Not that Russia is innocent from atrocities in this war, it just doesn't seem like their airstrikes yesterday are in that category. 

This incident is another reason why giving Ukraine cluster munitions was a mistake. I said at the time that I was worried that Ukraine would use them against civilians and that appears to be the case. I understand why it was done, cluster munitions were about the only weapons left for Ukraine, but the decision was a bad one. 

Searching on X shows that most pro-Ukraine accounts had two reactions to this attack. The more bloodthirsty ones are celebrating it, which isn't that surprising given how much they hate Russia and Russians. What is surprising is all the people claiming this is a false flag and that Russia attacked their own people. 

That, of course, makes zero sense. Most Russians were already onboard with the war against Ukraine and Russia has zero need to kill their own people to get them onboard. And one strike on civilians is unlikely to change anyone's mind during a war that has already had atrocities on both sides. Ukraine has the motive, means and opportunity to carry out this attack, so it just seems like desperation to me to claim it's a false flag. 

Some are claiming that this was Russian air defenses malfunctioning and hitting their own people. I find that to be slightly more plausible, but still extremely unlikely. The videos I have seen have shown multiple explosions with a delay between them, which does not seem like something that would happen with air defenses going astray. 

Either way, it's just another ugly incident in a war that has gone on for far too long. The Ukrainians would be wise to not waste weapons targeting civilians and should instead try to negotiate with the Russians for a settlement. Indeed, this attack likely hurt the cause as Russia will be slightly less likely to accept a peace deal after this incident...