Such civilian deaths are a constant occurrence in Ukraine, which has come under sustained Russian bombardment. But these victims were among the 25 people killed in the Russian city of Belgorod, about 20 miles from the border with Ukraine, in a rocket and missile attack on the day before New Year's Eve.
The dead that day included five children. More than 100 people were injured, including an 8-month-old baby whose leg had to be amputated. The unusually large number of casualties shocked Russians.
While scores of Ukrainian civilians have died in airstrikes from Kharkiv in the east to Lviv in the west, Belgorod is the only Russian city that has come under sustained assault and where the war is felt directly on a daily basis. The Dec. 30 strike was the first by Ukraine on Russian soil in which the civilian casualty count hit double digits.
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