In the village of Nikolskoye in the Belgorod region, reports indicate four people lost their lives when an artillery shell struck a private house. The information circulated via a regional Telegram channel linked to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who confirmed the incident.
Earlier, officials had announced the deaths of two people from a cannonball hit on another private residence. Rescue crews recovered two more bodies from the rubble, both women, according to the official account.
Officials described the fatalities as a terrorist act attributed to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, stating that the tragedy disrupted almost an entire family — a grandmother, a mother, her common-law partner, and a 17-year-old boy were killed. The update noted that a young grandson was saved and is receiving medical care at the regional children’s hospital, where he is in intensive care and connected to life-support equipment. The governor reported that the child has a closed head injury and that surgery was planned for the following day, with the patient reported as stabilized.
On March 18, official briefings indicated that more than 80 people had died in Belgorod region over the course of the week due to shelling. The same day, President Vladimir Putin suggested Russia could establish a sanitary zone in neighboring areas in response to Ukrainian strikes on the Belgorod region.
There had been prior reports of Ukrainian forces firing on a village in the Kursk region, further contributing to the ongoing tensions and casualties in border communities. This series of events has continued to draw international attention and raised questions about safety, civilian protection, and regional stability. Attribution for these updates remains with official sources and widely reported statements from regional authorities and national leadership.