11 shot dead at Russian army base

Gunmen shot dead 11 people at a Russian military training camp on Saturday, the defense ministry said, in the latest blow to President Vladimir Putin's forces since the invasion of Ukraine.

RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying 15 others were wounded, in Russia's southwestern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, when two men gunned down a group who had volunteered to take part in the war.

"During a firearms training session, the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit."

It said the two assailants - nationals from an unspecified former Soviet republic - had been shot dead.

Some Russian independent media outlets reported that the number of casualties was higher than official figures.

"A terrible event happened on our territory, on the territory of one of the military units," the governor of Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said early on Sunday.

"Many soldiers were killed and wounded There are no residents of the Belgorod region among them," Gladkov said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app.

The attack took place a week after a blast damaged a bridge in Crimea. Earlier in the war, Russia's flagship in the Black Sea blew up and sank.

Putin said on Friday Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and many fleeing the country.