MOSCOW, June 15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Ukrainian shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino killed five people and wounded several, the governor of the region of Belgorod said on Saturday.

Since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in 2022, Belgorod has faced waves of attacks, which Kyiv say are retaliation for Moscow's large-scale assault.

"Four bodies were recovered from the rubble" of a partially collapsed house in Shebekino, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who added that another woman had died in hospital.

Russia's emergency services published footage of a crane and rescuers sifting through the rubble of a destroyed five-storey building in the night.

Six civilians were wounded in the late evening shelling, the governor said.

Shebekino is a town of 40,000 people close to the border with Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region, where Russia launched a new major ground assault on May 10.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his army launched the offensive in Kharkiv to create a buffer zone that would protect Russian border villages, while Ukraine said it strikes Russian territory there to protect itself.