Russia's Belgorod governor accuses locals of faking war damage to receive compensation from the state
Residents in Russia's Belgorod Oblast are deliberately exposing their property to Ukrainian drone strikes to claim government compensation, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said during a May 12 regional government meeting.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Gladkov said.
Russia's Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk oblasts, is regularly used as a staging area for Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory.
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of launching repeated strikes on Belgorod Oblast and the city of Belgorod since the war began.
According to the governor, some local residents have started mass requests for state-funded resettlement, citing alleged fears of ongoing attacks to secure new housing.
"Or else the war will end and we will still be living in old houses," Gladkov said, summarizing the alleged logic of those applying for relocation.
"It is not one, not two, and not three settlements where we see that groups are beginning to form, which are trying to be led by individual residents and try to get state aid, in fact having no grounds for it," he said.
By the end of 2024, Belgorod authorities had paid 15.1 billion rubles ($187 million) in compensation to residents who lost property due to attacks, supporting over 2,500 families, Gladkov claimed in January.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 7 that Ukrainian troops are present in Belgorod Oblast. Ukrainian officials have said the move aimed to force Russia to divert resources from eastern Ukraine
