Apartment building damaged in Belgorod after air defenses activated

An apartment building in Belgorod, a Russian city just miles from the Ukrainian border, was damaged on Thursday, according to city mayor Anton Ivanov. Immediately before the incident, he said, the city’s anti-aircraft defense system was triggered.

Local media outlets reported that part of the building’s roof collapsed after it was hit by missile fragments. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths.

According to Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, the city was shelled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the anti-aircraft defenses were activated as a result. He reported that “the undetonated part of a shell fell on the sports field at Lyceum No. 23,” and that a school in the village of Krasnoye was also damaged. Students at the school have switched to remote learning.

The other shoe drops

Russian troops have shown a lack of regard for civilian lives — to put it mildly — since the very start of the war. In recent months, as fighting has begun to spill ever so slightly across the national border, some Russian residents have gotten a taste of what it means to have one’s life upended by war — and it’s caused them to change their views.