News Feed, Belgorod Oblast, Ukraine, Evacuation, War

Majority of residents left Russia's border district in Belgorod Oblast, authorities claim

by Martin Fornusek and The Kyiv Independent news desk August 13, 2024 12:01 PM 2 min read

Photo for illustrative purposes. The entrance to the Russian city of Belgorod, some 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, on May 28, 2023. (Olga Maltseva / AFP via Getty Images)

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Some 11,000 residents of the Krasnoyaruzhsky district in Russia's Belgorod Oblast had left their homes, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Aug. 13 amid Ukrainian cross-border incursions.

The Krasnoyaruzhsky district borders Ukraine's Sumy Oblast and Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion on Aug. 6.

Kyiv's forces have reportedly also entered Belgorod Oblast, supposedly displaying a Ukrainian flag in the village of Poroz in the Grayvoronsky border district, lying just south of the Krasnoyaruzhsky district.

According to a 2020 census, a little over 14,000 residents lived in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district, meaning that, based on Gladkov's statement, the vast majority of this number had left.

"Yesterday, residents of the Krasnoyaruzhsky district left their settlements. Due to the operational situation, more than 11,000 people had left," Gladkov said in a video address on his Telegram channel. Roughly 1,000 of them have been placed in accommodation facilities, he added.

WTF is wrong with Russia?

The governor reported on the evacuations on Aug. 12 due to the supposed activity of the Ukrainian army in the area. The step mirrors similar measures taken in Kursk Oblast, where thousands of people were mandated to leave their homes amid the Ukrainian advance.

Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups entered the territory of the Belovsky district in Russia's Kursk region overnight on Aug. 11, the head of the district, Nikolai Volobuev, claimed that day.

According to Volobuev, the group's appearance created "a lot of panic" in the Belovsky district, which borders the Krasnoyaruzhsky district. Volobuev described the current situation as "stable but very tense."

The Russian state-controlled media outlet TASS reported on Aug. 10 that over 76,000 residents of Kursk Oblast had been evacuated due to the ongoing fighting.

Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukrainian forces control around 1,000 square kilometers in Kursk Oblast as of Aug. 12.

Russia's regional authorities said that Ukraine is in control of 28 settlements in Kursk Oblast as of Aug. 12, claiming that the incursion was up to 12 kilometers deep along a 40-kilometer front.

Authors: Martin Fornusek, The Kyiv Independent news desk

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