At least 14 people, including two children, were killed and 108 others were wounded in strikes carried out by Ukraine near Russia's Belgorod on Saturday, Russia said, as Moscow called for a U.N. Security Council meeting.
The Kommersant newspaper cited a source close to the Russian Investigative Committee as saying missiles fired from a multiple rocket launcher in Ukraine's Kharkov region had hit a skating rink on the central Cathedral Square, a shopping center, residential buildings and a car.
No official comment was immediately available from Kyiv, but the Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine quoted sources as saying Ukrainian forces had struck military targets in Belgorod in response to a massive Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities the previous day.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state-run RIA news agency that Russia had requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the incident.
"The terrorist attack on Belgorod will be the subject of proceedings in the U.N. Security Council," said Zakharova.
"Behind the terrorist attack is Great Britain, which, in coordination with the United States, is inciting the Kyiv regime to terrorist actions, as it has recognized that the Ukrainian armed forces' counteroffensive has failed," Zakharova was further quoted as saying by the state agency TASS.
Air raid sirens had sounded around the city as regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov urged all residents to move to shelters.
The Belgorod region, which adjoins northern Ukraine, has like other Russian border zones suffered shelling and drone attacks all year that authorities have blamed on Ukraine.
"Today, the Kyiv regime attempted an indiscriminate combined strike on the city of Belgorod with two 'Olkha' missiles in a banned cluster configuration, as well as Czech-made Vampire rockets," the Defense Ministry said in a Telegram posting. "This crime will not go unpunished."
It said most of the rockets, including both 'Olkha' missiles, had been shot down, averting far greater casualties, although fragments had fallen on the city.
Images posted by RIA showed at least three cars on fire, and other images posted online showed black smoke rising from the city.
Two residents told Reuters they had seen air defense missiles rising into the sky followed by explosions in the air and then louder blasts.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what it calls a "special military operation," unleashed its biggest air attack of the war on Friday.
Ukrainian officials said 39 civilians had been killed and 159 wounded as Russia launched 158 missiles and drones at cities and towns across Ukraine.
Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Bryansk region which also adjoins Ukraine, said on Saturday a child had been killed in strikes on "civilian objects" in two villages, without specifying when the attacks took place.