The family of Mohammad Shanani, a Syrian student killed in the attack on Belgorod shopping centre in Russia, were seen mourning his loss in footage taken in Homs on Monday.

"My son was martyred in Russia," said mother Daren Suleiman. "He was a student who had travelled there seeking knowledge. He had excelled in his first year, and he was pursuing the second year. He was heading to a shopping mall to get some needs when the Ukrainian US-backed shelling targeted them and was martyred."

Footage shows people offering their condolences to the family, as well as the gathering of relatives.

Shanani was among seven killed in a strike on a shopping centre on Belgorod last Thursday, according to Governor Vyachelslav Gladkov, who added that 18 more people were injured.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described it as an 'act of terrorism by the Kiev regime'.

The Ukrainian side did not comment, although Kiev has previously strongly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure during the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.

Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.