Ukrainian strike on Russian border village kills four, governor says

A predawn Ukrainian strike on a Russian border village has killed four people and wounded two others, the governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region says.

The strike on the village of Suzemka, which lies a dozen kilometers (seven miles) from the Ukrainian border, came the night after a suspected drone hit a fuel depot in Moscow-annexed Crimea.

“Two more civilians have been found and removed from the rubble. Unfortunately, both of them died,” Alexander Bogomaz, the local governor, says on Telegram. Bogomaz initially said two people were killed when “the Ukrainian army shelled Suzemka.”

Two other villagers were taken to hospital with injuries, the official says.

Bogomaz says Ukrainian shelling hit the village twice overnight and that Russian air defense “shot down several shells.” He says one shell hit a residential house, sparking a fire, and that two more houses were damaged.

The village has declared a state of emergency, Bogomaz says, adding that work “is continuing on the removal of rubble.”

Russian villages in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine have been hit by a number of strikes since Moscow invaded its neighbor.