Last night, at an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council held at Moscow's request, Russia condemned Ukraine for committing a "deliberate act of terrorism" and using cluster bombs in the attack on the Russian border town of Belgorod.
Russia announced yesterday that it would respond to the attack it blamed on the Ukrainian army, in which 21 people were killed in Belgorod, according to the latest data, while dozens more were injured.
It is the deadliest attack on civilians in Russia since the start of the offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, which is why Russia called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council yesterday.
"It is a blind and deliberate attack on civilian targets," said Russia's ambassador to the UN Vasiliy Nebenzija.
He accused Ukraine of targeting a sports center, an ice rink and a university.
"The members of the Security Council have the opportunity to fulfill their duty and objectively assess what happened," said Nebenzija and pointed out that it was a "deliberate act of terrorism" by Ukraine.
"In order to increase the number of victims of that terrorist act, they used cluster bombs," he said.
These weapons are banned in many countries, and when small explosive devices are dispersed before or after an impact, there are collateral civilian casualties.
Ukraine's allies responded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the war.
"It is Putin's war. We call for the protection of all civilians on all sides of any conflict," said US Representative John Kelly.
British representative Thomas Phipps expressed "deep" regret for the loss of civilian life and called out Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
"There are hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There is not a single Ukrainian soldier in Russia, he said. "If Russia wants to blame someone for dead fellow citizens in this war, it should start with President Putin, the British diplomat added.
Serhiy Dvornik, a member of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission to the UN, said that the death toll and suffering of people will continue to rise as long as there is a war "caused by a dictator from the Kremlin."
Belgorod is located 80 kilometers north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The attack on Belgorod followed a day after a series of intense Russian attacks on Ukraine, in which, according to the Kyiv authorities, 40 people were killed.
Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said last night that 21 people were killed and at least 111 were injured.
Ukraine regularly carries out attacks in Russia, especially in areas close to its territory, but the number of dead and injured people was much lower than yesterday.
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