The toll rose to four when a cannonball struck a house in Nikolskoye village, located in the Belgorod region. Updates from a regional communications channel reported by the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, confirmed this grim development.
Gladkov described the incident as a terrorist act attributed to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, noting that this attack left almost an entire family dead—the grandmother, the mother, her common‑law partner, and a 17‑year‑old boy. The governor emphasized that the loss is a profound blow to the Belgorod region as a whole and underscored the lasting impact on those who remain in the community.
Authorities said rescue teams pulled a young granddaughter from the rubble after the strike. The child sustained a head injury and was placed on a ventilator in the regional clinical hospital’s intensive care unit. A surgical procedure was scheduled for the child on March 19 as doctors prepared for the intervention and continued to monitor her condition closely.
On March 18, Gladkov provided an update noting that two people had died and four were injured during the bombardment of Nikolskoye. Additionally, the bodies of two women who were inside the house at the time had not yet been recovered, and search operations remained ongoing as responders continued to work through the debris and assess the scene for potential additional casualties.
Earlier, Russian guard units reported repelling a UAV attack aimed at the Belgorod region, indicating ongoing security challenges in the area and the need for continued vigilance and rapid emergency responses to similar threats.