Ukraine shelling continues in Russia’s Belgorod as thousands relocated

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Shelling by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Belgorod region continued Sunday night, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Sunday, after two people were killed the night before and hundreds of children were evacuated from the border.

“Overnight it was turbulent,” Gladkov told Telegram, adding that the Chepekino and Volokonovsky districts had suffered “severe damage” from shelling during the night.

Gladkov said more than 4,000 people had been moved to temporary accommodation in the region that borders Ukraine to the south and west.

The reality of the war, which Moscow unleashed in Ukraine in February 2022, has been increasingly brought to Russia, with intensified bombing on border regions as well as airstrikes deep inside the country, including earlier this week on Moscow.

In late May, the Russian military said it had repelled one of the most serious cross-border attacks by a Ukrainian “subversive group” that it said had entered Russian territory in Belgorod.

Ukraine denied attacking Moscow last week and also denied that its military was involved in incursions into Belgorod. It says it is run by Russian volunteer fighters.

On Saturday, Gladkov took about 600 children from the Chepkino and Grivoron districts of the region to Yaroslavl and Kaluga.

“Chepkino children are very worried about their hometown,” he said. “I started to leave, they stopped me and anxiously began asking questions.”

The border town of Chebykino, with a population of 40,000, and other places in Belgorod have come under attack frequently recently, with Gladkov telling Russian media the region is now in “virtual war conditions”.

Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a war and says it was launched to protect Russia from the threat of Ukraine’s moves toward the West. Kiev and its allies say the land grab is an unprovoked aggression.