At least nine people have been killed and 20 injured when a section of a Russian apartment block collapsed after being struck by fragments of a Soviet-era missile, launched by Ukraine and shot down by Russia, Russian officials said.
In one of the deadliest attacks to date on the region of Belgorod, Ukraine launched what Russian officials said was a massive missile attack, involving Tochka ballistic missiles and Adler and RM-70 Vampire (MLRS) multiple launch rocket systems.
Footage from the scene showed at least 10 storeys of the building collapsing.
Later, as emergency services scoured the rubble for survivors, the roof collapsed and people ran as dust and rubble fell behind them.
Russia's defence ministry said the attack, which it called a "terrorist attack on residential areas", took place at 0840 GMT (9:40am Irish time) and involved at least 12 missiles.
"Fragments of one of the downed Tochka-U missiles damaged an apartment building in the city of Belgorod," the ministry said.
Russia's Interfax said nine people were killed and 20 injured. At least one child was among the missing.
Rocket sirens went off as emergency workers searched the rubble.
Both Ukraine and Russia say they do not target civilians, though many civilians have been killed by both sides in the war.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the attack, which it said was "barbaric".
Russia's foreign ministry said the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure was criminal.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Kharkiv front
After heavy shelling of Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, Russian forces launched an incursion over recent days and say they have pushed Ukrainian forces out of at least nine villages in the area.
The move threatens to open up a new front and has forced Ukraine to dedicate additional troops to the area just as Russian forces advance at key points along the front in the south and the east.
Russian troops said they seized another four villages - Hatyshche, Krasne, Morokhovets and Oliinykove – in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
Russian military bloggers said Russia was taking advantage of its numerical superiority to push hard into relatively undefended areas with small highly mobile units of troops, which then surrounded Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that fighting was going on in a number of villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region as Russian forces tried to press their drive across the border.
Mr Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, also noted fierce battles in various parts of Donetsk region to the southeast.
He said "defensive battles" were taking place along large sections of the border in Kharkiv, where Russian forces launched a major armoured push on Friday.
Mr Zelensky said: "There are villages that have in fact been turned from a 'grey zone' into a zone of hostilities.
"The occupier is trying to gain a foothold in some of them, while others are being used to advance further."
He said fighting was "no less acute" in some areas of Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia's slow drive to occupy all of eastern Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, 30 armed clashes had occurred,he said, in the Pokrovsk sector, northwest of the Russian-held town of Avdiivka, and there was also fighting in the sectors of Lyman, Kupiansk, Kramatorsk and other areas
In response to Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod, Mr Putin suggested in March that Moscow could try to establish a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution, and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces.
About 14,000 people were killed there between 2014 and the end of 2021, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including 3,106 civilians.
