Gunmen kill 11 at Russian military base in latest blow to war in Ukraine
- Russia said two gunmen from an ex-Soviet state on Saturday attacked a military training ground, killing 11 people who volunteered to fight in Ukraine
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said on Saturday his troops were facing a ‘most difficult’ situation near the eastern town of Bakhmut
Gunmen shot dead 11 people at a Russian military training ground on Saturday, the defence ministry said, in the latest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s forces since the invasion of Ukraine.
RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying 15 other people were wounded in the shooting on Saturday, in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, when two men gunned down a group who had volunteered to take part in the war.
It said the two assailants – nationals from an unspecified former Soviet republic – had been shot dead. Some Russian independent media outlets reported that the number of casualties was higher than the official figures.
“A terrible event happened on our territory, on the territory of one of the military units,” the Governor of Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said early on Sunday.
“Many soldiers were killed and wounded … There are no residents of the Belgorod region among the wounded and killed,’ Gladkov said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app.