UN envoy visits Russia’s Belgorod to assess damage from Ukrainian shelling

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Vanessa Frazier, UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, visited the Belgorod region earlier in the day.

The ministry said this was the first such trip to the Russian border region.

“This first trip to the Russian border region was aimed at providing the leadership of the world organization’s secretariat with objective information first hand about the humanitarian situation in the region, which is systematically subjected to shelling,” it said.

The visit gave Frazier the opportunity to evaluate the scale of destruction and the measures being taken by the leadership of the Belgorod region to protect the population and restore normal life, it added.

“The visit to the Belgorod region made it possible to demonstrate information about the situation,” the ministry said.

According to the ministry, Frazier had a busy schedule, including visits to social, medical, infrastructure and residential facilities.

“However, the key part of the visit was examining the situation of children,” it said.

Accompanied by Russian officials, Frazier visited a secondary school and kindergarten that had come under fire from Ukraine, it said.

Frazier also toured the Belgorod Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital, spoke with affected children and their parents, and visited the Belgorod Thermal Power Plant, a strategic energy facility that has been repeatedly attacked, the ministry said.