Ukraine war: Thousands of children to be evacuated from Belgorod after strikes

Around 9,000 children will be evacuated from the Russian city of Belgorod and the wider region after shelling that authorities have blamed on Ukraine.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said three people, including a child, were injured in the latest attacks, while part of the region - which borders Ukraine - was without power.

He added that a total of 16 people have been killed and 98 wounded this week.

It comes days after strikes forced closures across the city.

Students in Belgorod were ordered not to attend school on Monday and Tuesday. Shopping centres in Belgorod were also closed on Sunday and Monday.

The new evacuation order affects several villages in the city of Belgorod and several villages in other parts of the region, Mr Gladkov told a gathering of the Kremlin's United Russia party.

The first group of 1,200 children will be evacuated on Friday.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces shot down what is said were nine Ukrainian shells over Belgorod on Tuesday.

The ministry later added it had destroyed two groups of Ukrainian "saboteurs" in pre-emptive strikes near the border with the Belgorod and Kursk regions.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian border areas have continued to report Russian attacks, requiring evacuations there.

Earlier this week, authorities in the north-eastern Sumy region said that more than 150 people had been forced to flee due to intensified shelling.

The mayor of Bilopil, a village in Sumy, suggested on Tuesday that the situation remained the same and highlighted two further explosions.

"A critical infrastructure object has been hit," Yuriy Zarko told Ukrainian media. "The houses of local residents were also damaged."

He went on: "There is no information about the injured or the dead. The scale of the destruction is being clarified."

Kyiv has not commented on the recent spate of attacks in Belgorod.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously accused Kyiv of launching strikes on the region to disrupt his bid for re-election, in which he claimed a landslide victory.

The contest was described as neither free nor fair by critics. Mr Putin's victory was in no doubt, since he had no credible opponent.

On Tuesday, Mr Putin called on the Federal Security Service to identify and punish pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters who he accused of taking part in deadly attacks on Russia's on border regions.

"About these traitors... we must not forget who they are, we must identify them by name. We will punish them without statute of limitations, wherever they are," he told a meeting of the FSB board.

Earlier this month, three Ukraine-based Russian paramilitary groups said they had crossed into Russia and were now fighting government troops there.

The Freedom of Russia Legion (FRL) and Siberian Battalion (SB) posted videos that purported to show their fighters in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.

The FRL and an exiled Russian politician claimed two villages were now in control of "liberation forces".

At the time, Russia's defence ministry said the breakthrough attempts were thwarted.