Russia’s Belgorod declared a state of emergency after the Ukrainian shelling
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A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Belgorod following an attack by Ukrainian forces.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation was “very difficult” due to daily bombings in the region.
“Houses are collapsing, residents have died and been injured,” he said.
Next in Ukraine amazing border raids in Russia’s Kursk region last week, leading to mass evacuations and a state of emergency declared there by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a video on Telegram, Governor Gladkov said he would urge the government to declare a state of emergency “at the government level”.
He said the city of Shebekino and the village of Ustinka were attacked by Ukrainian drones. No injuries have been reported so far.
Russia says it shot down 117 drones overnight, mostly targeting four regions – Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod.
Belgorod is just south of Kursk region, the area where Ukraine has made the most of Russia’s incursions since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in 2022.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops had advanced into Russian territory, while army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv “controls an area of 40 square kilometers” and 74 residential areas were taken.
But exactly how much Russian territory has been taken is uncertain, and there are doubts about Syrskyi’s previous claim that a total of 1,000 sq km is under Ukrainian control.
Ukraine has said it will not retain Russian territory it has taken, adding that it will stop the offensive if Moscow agrees to “just peace”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy said Kyiv is not interested in “taking over” Russian territory.
“If Russia immediately agrees to restore peace… the attack of Ukrainian troops on Russia will soon end,” he told reporters.
President Putin on Monday said that Ukraine has rejected Russian proposals to return to the peaceful settlement process.
“It seems that the enemy, with the help of the Western masters, is fulfilling their will, and the Western countries are fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainian people,” he said.
President Zelensky has long said that Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian troops leave all of Ukraine, including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
Russia has so far struggled to stop Ukraine’s advance, as nearly 200,000 Russians have fled their homes in parts of the Kursk region.
Moscow insisted on Tuesday that Ukraine’s attempts to deepen the conflict had been thwarted, but this has been proven wrong in the past.
US President Biden said on Tuesday that the attack “creates a real problem for Putin”.
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