ReutersA state of emergency has been declared in Russia’s Belgorod border region following attacks by Ukrainian forces.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation was “extremely difficult” as the area was shelled daily.
“Many houses were destroyed, many civilians were killed and injured,” he said.
It follows Ukraine cross-border surprise attack in Russia’s Kursk region last week, leading to mass evacuations and a state of emergency declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin there.
In a Telegram video, Governor Gladkov said he would call on the government to declare a state of emergency “at the federal level”.
He said the city of Shebekino and the village of Ustinka were attacked by Ukrainian drones. There were no reports of casualties yet.
Russia said it shot down 117 drones overnight, mainly targeting four regions – Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, Mr Gladkov said there had been 23 drone attacks in the past 24 hours in Belgorod.
Shelling and shrapnel damaged a church, 14 houses, an administrative building, several vehicles and a gas supply pipeline, he said.
He added that one civilian was injured as a direct result of the drone strike in the Shebekinsky district.
Belgorod lies just south of the Kursk region, the site of Ukraine’s deepest offensive into Russia since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the army had advanced deeper into Russian territory, while army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi declared Kyiv had “controlled over 40 square kilometers” with 74 captured settlements.
But it remains unclear exactly how much territory Russia has seized, and there is skepticism about Syrskyi’s previous claim that a total of 1,000 square kilometers is under Ukrainian control.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy said Kyiv was not interested in “seizing” Russian territory.
“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace… the sooner the attacks by Ukrainian defense forces on Russia will stop,” he told reporters.
President Putin said on Monday that Ukraine had rejected Russia’s proposal to return to a plan for a peaceful settlement.
“It seems that the enemy, with the help of the Western masters, is carrying out its will, and the West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians,” he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry envoy Rodion Miroshnik described the Ukrainian attack as a “terrorist act”, accusing Ukraine of “halting the prospects for peace talks” by attacking the Kursk region.
President Zelensky has long said Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian forces leave all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
Russia is still struggling to stop Ukraine’s advance, with nearly 200,000 Russians forced to flee their homes in some areas of the Kursk region.
On Tuesday, Moscow insisted that Ukraine’s further advances had been stopped, but this has been proven false.
In his first comments since the campaign, US President Biden said the attack was “creating a real dilemma for Putin”.
Meanwhile, the prime ministers of Finland and Estonia said they supported Ukraine’s military operation in Kursk at a joint press conference on Wednesday.
Last week, the German Foreign Ministry said Ukraine had the right to self-defense “without limitation within its territory.”
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