Shooting at Russian military range leaves 11 dead, 15 wounded

Two men fired at soldiers on a Russian military firing range near Ukraine on Saturday, killing 11 and wounding 15, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The shooting - which has been called a "terrorist attack" by the ministry - took place in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia that borders Ukraine.

The ministry said two men from an unnamed former Soviet republic fired on volunteer soldiers during target practice and were killed by return fire. The shooting comes amid a hasty mobilisation ordered by President Vladimir Putin to beef up Russian forces in Ukraine - a move that triggered protests and caused hundreds of thousands to flee Russia.

Putin said on Friday that over 220,000 reservists already had been called up as part of an effort to recruit 300,000. He said the mobilisation would end in two weeks, but critics were sceptical the draft would end within that timeframe.

The mobilisation was troubled from the start, with authorities issuing confusing signals about who should be called up for service in a country where almost all men under the age of 65 are listed as reservists. Even though the Russian leader declared that only people who had recently served in the military would be subject to the call-up, activists and rights groups reported military conscription offices rounding up people without any army experience, some of whom were also unfit for service for medical reasons.

Russian media reports said some of those who were mobilised were sent to combat without receiving proper training and were quickly killed

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