MOSCOW: Eight people were injured in overnight Ukrainian attacks in and around the western Russian city of Belgorod, officials and the army said on Thursday.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said several apartment blocks and homes were damaged.

“The city of Belgorod and Belgorod district were subjected to an air attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There are direct hits on residential apartment buildings and cars,” Gladkov said on the messaging app Telegram.

“According to preliminary information, eight people were injured: seven adults and one child.”

Five people with shrapnel wounds, including an 11-year-old girl injured in the foot, were taken to hospital, while the other three victims were treated at the scene, he added.

In Belgorod city, 19 apartment buildings, one private residence and 37 vehicles were damaged, Gladkov said.

In nearby Dubovoe, four homes and three cars were damaged, he added.

Situated close to the border, Belgorod is frequently targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks, including one on Monday that killed six people and wounded 35.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian territory of late, targeting energy sites in particular.

Russia’s defence ministry, meanwhile, said Belgorod was attacked by several Ukrainian RM-70 Vampire multiple rocket launchers overnight, adding that 15 rockets and a drone had been downed.

Attack on Russia’s Belgorod kills five, governor says

It said two other drones were shot down in the Bryansk region, which also borders Ukraine, and three others in Kursk.

The governors of these two regions said there were no casualties or damage.

The Russian army said an overnight Ukrainian drone attack struck a fuel depot in the village of Yurovka in the Krasnodar region near the Crimean peninsula, a Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow in 2014.

“About six drones were destroyed but many fell on the complex. As a result, a fire broke out and several reservoirs were damaged,” the chief of staff in the Krasnodar region said.