Multiple dead as Russian building collapses near Ukraine border while fighting rages in neighbouring Kharkiv

Multiple people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded after a 10-storey apartment block in the Russian region of Belgorod collapsed - in what the Kremlin claimed, without providing evidence, was a Ukrainian missile strike.

The region, which shares a border with the Ukrainian oblast of Kharkiv, has been hit several times over the past few months as Russian forces continue to attack across the border.

Footage from Belgorod showed the building collapsing after the entrance to the block appeared to give way.

Later, as emergency services scoured the rubble for survivors, the roof collapsed and people ran for their lives, dust and rubble falling behind them.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that two bodies had been pulled from the rubble but local Russian media outlets claimed that up to 32 people had been trapped under the debris while seven people had been killed.

Russia’s health ministry, meanwhile, refrained from reporting a death toll at all.

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Nonetheless, Vladimir Putin’s regime quickly sought to portray the incident as the result of a Ukrainian missile attack.

The Kremlin defence ministry reported that Ukraine had launched a salvo of missiles towards Belgorod, while Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, described the incident as “another blood link in the chain of crimes” perpetrated by the Kyiv regime.

Footage published by online media outlet Mash showed what they claimed was the remnants of a missile but the image could not be verified. No further evidence was provided to prove that a Ukrainian missile had caused the collapse.

Ukraine does not comment officially on incidents outside its own territory.

Mr Gladkov later issued several more missile warnings in the region throughout Sunday.

The incident comes as Russian forces continued to launch a deadly assault into the Kharkiv region, forcing more than 4,000 Ukrainian civilians to evacuate from key frontier towns within a few miles of the border.

The offensive, which started in the early hours of Friday, has involved small infantry-led units on two sectors of the border between Kharkiv and Belgorod advancing into what is known as the “grey zone”, an area where neither Russia nor Ukraine have full control.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said at least two civilians were killed on Sunday in Vovchansk, a small Ukrainian village that appears to be the target of one of Russia’s attacks. It is just 40 miles from Ukraine’s second largest city, named after the wider region, which is home to around 1.3 million people.

The second attack further north, towards a village called Oliinykove, is just 25 miles from Kharkiv city.

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Ukrainian military officials had long warned that Russian forces were massing tens of thousands of troops in that area.

But the attack marks the first time in nearly two years that fighting has taken place in that region, after Ukrainian forces liberated the wider area from Russian rule in September 2022.

Since then, the fighting has largely been confined to the neighbouring region of Luhansk, as well as Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson further southward.

Russia said it took four more towns in the region on Sunday, having claimed to have taken five on Saturday, but Ukrainian officials disputed that report.

“This week, the situation in Kharkiv Oblast has significantly worsened,” wrote Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Sunday morning.

“Currently, there are ongoing battles in the border areas along the state border. The situation is difficult but the Defence Forces of Ukraine are doing everything to hold defensive lines and positions, inflicting damage on the enemy.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, described the attack as an “extremely dangerous” moment for Ukraine. “Putin has now, as it were, invaded [Ukraine] again from Kharkiv,” he said.