Three people were killed and nine others were wounded in a Ukrainian strike on a shopping centre in the village of Belaya, located in the Belovsky district of Russia’s Kursk region, local governor Alexander Khinshtein wrote in his Telegram channel, citing preliminary data.

According to Khinshtein, the strike was carried out in the evening. All the wounded, including four children aged 13-14, have been transported to a local hospital.

Russian forces advanced further in the Kursk region on Monday and curled behind Ukrainian forces as part of a major encirclement operation aimed at forcing thousands of Ukrainian soldiers to either flee or surrender in western Russia.