UPDATE - Death toll from Ukraine's attack on Russian city of Belgorod rises to 24

UPDATES DEATH AND CASUALTY TOLL IN HEADLINE, SPOT AND LEDE; ADDS LATEST STATEMENT BY BELGOROD GOVERNOR; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The death toll from Ukraine's Saturday attack on the Russian city of Belgorod has risen to 24 after another person died in a hospital from his injuries, local authorities said on Sunday.

"As of 08:30 (0530GMT), 24 people were killed, forensic experts determined that there was another dead child. Another wounded man died in the hospital without regaining consciousness. Groups of federal and regional doctors fought for the patient’s life to the end," said Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region, in a statement on Telegram.

The 108 people injured in the attack are being provided with the "necessary assistance," Gladkov said, adding that the attack damaged 453 apartments in 37 buildings, several private houses, and numerous vehicles.

In an earlier statement, Gladkov said the attack killed 22 people and injured 109 others, 25 of whom sustained serious wounds and will be transported to Moscow for treatment.

This was a "terrorist attack" that was deliberately directed at civilians, Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, blaming the UK and US for helping plan and carry out the "crime."

"A deliberate act of terrorism directed against civilians... the organization of this terrorist attack involved American and British consultants who regularly incite the authorities of present-day Ukraine to commit bloody crimes," he stressed.

Earlier on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine used two Olkha missiles with cassette munitions and Czech multiple rocket launcher systems Vampire. The strikes were directed at residential quarters, it added.

The use of cassette munitions is prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions and is considered a war crime in many countries.

The city of Belgorod is the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, a region located approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the border with Ukraine.