Russia alleged on Friday that Ukraine had used US-supplied rockets to kill women and children in a region of southern Russia, and said that Washington was to blame.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the deaths had occurred last week in the Belgorod region after the United States agreed to let Ukraine fire US-supplied weapons into Russian territory for the defence of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

She said statements by Washington giving the green light for such attacks amounted to “a confession…for the murder of children and women in the Belgorod region”.

“Fragments of Himars [rockets] will serve as direct proof,” she told reporters.

Reuters could not independently verify the assertion and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine or the United States.

Zakharova did not present images of any rocket fragments. She did not say how many people had been killed in the alleged incident.