Russia Accuses West of Responsibility for Ukrainian Strike on Belgorod

An attack by Kiev’s forces that hit the center of the city claimed the lives of at least 20 people and left more than 100 injured, according to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, RT reported.

“Britain is behind the terrorist act,” Zakharova said in an audio statement, adding that London, together with Washington have been instigating Ukraine to commit terrorist acts amid the failed summer counteroffensive.

A much-touted six-month-long operation by the Ukrainian troops has barely brought about any changes to the frontline despite heavy casualties both in personnel and equipment on the Ukrainian side. According to the latest Russian military estimates, Ukraine has lost over 125,000 troops and 16,000 pieces of heavy equipment in its failed attempts to advance. Heavy armor and weaponry supplied to Kiev by its Western backers did not change the tide of battle as many of these equipment pieces ended up destroyed or even captured by the Russian troops.

“Amid the lack of even the smallest chances to improve the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ miserable situation on the ground, [Washington and London] resorted to the tactics of terrorist attacks against civilians,” Zakharova said, without providing any evidence of the US or UK having a hand in the Saturday strike. She also said that Russia would raise the issue of Ukrainian actions at a UN Security Council meeting.

The Russian foreign ministry’s spokeswoman also recalled that the UK had virtually prohibited Kiev from holding talks with Moscow, focusing on a “battlefield victory” instead. She was referring to an earlier interview by a Ukrainian senior legislator, David Arakhamia. The politician, who heads President Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in parliament and led the Ukrainian delegation at the Istanbul talks, told the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 that the conflict could have ended in spring 2022.

At that time, Moscow had essentially offered Ukraine peace in exchange for neutrality and a promise not to join NATO, he said in late November. Arakhamia also revealed that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kiev in early April, told Ukrainian officials not to “sign anything” with the Russians and to “just continue fighting” instead.

The EU is responsible for the Saturday tragedy as well, Zakharova said, adding that the bloc continues to supply Kiev with weapons. She also pointed to the fact that the Ukrainian troops use banned cluster munitions against civilians.

Earlier on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that rockets with cluster bomb warheads were used in the attack on Belgorod. Cluster munitions were banned by more than 110 nations under a UN convention in 2008 due to the extreme danger they pose to civilians.

Washington announced that it would supply Kiev with cluster bombs out of its Cold War-era stockpiles in July, claiming that Ukraine had vowed not to use them in populated areas. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at that time that the use of cluster bombs should be regarded as a war crime.