Ukraine retaliates to huge Russian air attack with mass shelling strikes, reports say

• Ukraine has hit back at Russia following its huge air attack earlier this week.
• Ukraine launched a series of strikes in southwest Russia, Tass news agency reported.

Ukraine has reportedly hit back at the huge Russian air attack on Friday by shelling cities in southwest Russia.

Multiple people, including children, are thought to have died in the strikes on Belgorod and Bryansk, the Tass news agency reported, citing Russia's emergencies ministry.

"Over 10 shells have been fired from multiple launch rocket systems at civilian targets. As a result of this terror attack, unfortunately, a child born in 2014 died," the Bryansk region's governor wrote on Telegram.

Belgorod's regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in another post on Telegram that two children had died in the attacks on the city.

A spokesperson for the Russian emergencies ministry told TASS that "twelve adults and two children were killed in Belgorod," adding that "as many as 108 people, including 15 children, were injured."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the attack, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said, per Tass.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in an update on the conflict on Saturday that its air defense systems had shot down 15 HIMARS and Olkha multiple launch rocket system "projectiles" and three HARM anti-radiation missiles.

It also intercepted 35 Ukrainian drones, it added.

The strikes come in the wake of Russia's largest air attack of the conflict so far, which hit nearly 120 cities and villages on Friday, killing 39 people and wounding 159 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

"Works to clear up the consequences of yesterday's Russian attack are still underway," he wrote while also thanking global leaders and politicians who condemned the strikes.