Police officers use tape to block off the area following shelling, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia September 1, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
(Reuters) - Some kindergartens will shut for a week in the Russian city of Belgorod near Ukraine's border while several schools will hold online classes after a Kyiv attack destroyed a child care facility on Monday, the region's governor said.
"It's a bad morning for the Belgorod region," the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on social network VKontakte the day classes were set to resume after the summer vacation.
"A kindergarten in the city of Belgorod has been almost completely destroyed."
After the attack, authorities decided that several schools in the city's large district of Kharkovskaya Gora would hold classes online, while kindergartens would be shut for a week, Gladkov said.
Russia's air defence units destroyed one Ukraine-launched drone overnight, the defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Ukrainian forces have long subjected the city of Belgorod and nearby districts to shelling and other attacks. Kyiv says its attacks target infrastructure key to Moscow's war efforts.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the 30-month-old war unleashed by Moscow's invasion of its smaller neighbour.
On Sunday, Gladkov said Ukraine's shelling killed one person and injured more than a dozen in the region, the administrative centre of which is the city of Belgorod.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
