MOSCOW: Ukrainian shelling killed four people near Russia’s border city of Belgorod on Monday, bringing the total number of dead in the region since last week to 15, authorities said.

Attacks on Russian territory have intensified in recent days as Russia wraps up elections that could see President Vladimir Putin in power until at least 2030.

“Four people were killed in the village of Nikolskoye as a result of a direct shell hit on a private residential house,” governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

“Rescuers recovered the bodies of two more women from under the rubble,” Gladkov said, after posting previously that a 17-year-old boy and a man died of their wounds.

Combined with previous figures released by Belgorod’s health authorities, at least 15 people have been killed across the region since last Tuesday.

The attacks have drawn anger and frustration from the Kremlin, which has been keen to downplay the impacts of its offensive in Ukraine on the Russian population.

Russia’s border regions were targeted last week by a series of brazen cross-border raids by pro-Ukrainian militias, who claimed to have seized control of a village.

In a press conference after his re-election victory, Putin said he was considering creating a “sanitary zone” in Ukrainian territory adjoining Belgorod to prevent further attacks.

“I do not rule out that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain ‘sanitary zone’ on today’s territories subordinate to the Kyiv regime,” Putin said.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024