Russian region reports renewed shelling from Ukraine

As Russian offensive renews in eastern Ukraine, Russian authorities have reported shelling from their neighbour into the border region of Belgorod.

The village of Golovchino was hit and a woman was injured, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced on Telegram on Tuesday.

The region, which according to the authorities has already been shelled several times, borders the embattled Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.

Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, ordered by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Feb. 24, there have been repeated incidents in the region, according to authorities.

In early April, two Ukrainian attack helicopters reportedly also shelled and set fire to an oil depot in the Belgorod region.

Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Read also: Oil traders to cut purchase of Russia’s crude from May

In view of the shelling, Russia has threatened Ukraine, saying that it would increasingly target command posts for missile attacks in the capital Kiev.

Due to the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, no escape corridors have been set up for the embattled localities for the third day in a row, government sources in Kiev said.

“The intense shelling in the Donbas continues,” Deputy Prime Minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, announced on Tuesday.

She also accused Russia of failing to provide a humanitarian corridor for civilians in the direction of Berdyansk in the particularly embattled port city of Mariupol, in spite of requests.

“We continue difficult negotiations on opening humanitarian corridors in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions,” Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram.

Authorities had recently complained in various cities in eastern Ukraine that they were no longer able to bring people to safety from the embattled areas because of the danger of shelling.

Most recently, on Saturday, just under 1,500 people had reached safe areas via such routes.

According to the United Nations, about five million people have left Ukraine since the war began.

Several million are displaced within the country; at the same time, more and more people are returning to the country.