Two men opened fire on Russian soldiers at a training camp in the Belgorod region on Saturday, killing 11 and wounding 15, before being killed themselves, according to Russian state-run news outlets. The Russian defence ministry called the episode a terrorist attack, according to the state media outlets RIA Novosti and Tass, which quoted a ministry statement.
The account of the shootings could not be verified independently. The statement from the ministry said the two men were from an ex-Soviet nation and had fired on other soldiers during target practice at a firing range, RIA Novosti reported. It was not clear if the attackers were volunteer soldiers themselves involved in the training. Earlier reports suggested they were volunteers.
Law enforcement representatives are working on site, the statement said. The shootings come after President Vladimir Putin announced a large mobilisation last month to shore up his faltering war effort in Ukraine. Putin has said at least 2,20,000 reservists have been called up. At least 16,000 of them have been deployed "in units that get involved in fulfilling combat tasks," Putin told reporters in Kazakhstan on Friday. The reports did not specify which former Soviet state the shooters came from; the Russian army allows some foreigners to serve under contract, which can give them a pathway to citizenship. Inside Russia, Putin's draft has run into growing resistance after it appeared to be hitting minority groups and rural areas harder than the big cities.
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