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Russia's Belgorod Oblast declares state of emergency, governor says

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Russia's Belgorod Oblast declares state of emergency, governor says
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)

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a state of emergency on Aug. 14, citing an "extremely difficult" and tense situation due to ongoing attack from Ukrainian forces.

Gladkov reported extensive damage, including destroyed homes and civilian casualties, and announced that the regional emergency would be followed by a request for a federal state of emergency.

Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast and is adjacent to Kursk, has been targeted by Ukrainian drones, resulting in a fire and structural damage to an apartment building in Shebekino. Despite the attacks, there have been no reported casualties from the drone strikes.

This escalation follows a recent significant cross-border attack by Ukrainian forces into Kursk, where a state of emergency was declared last week.

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 12 that Ukrainian troops controlled about 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk Oblast, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said the next day that Ukraine holds 74 settlements.

In response to the incursion, Russian leader Vladimir Putin called to expel Ukrainian forces from Russian soil. Alexei Smirnov, acting governor of Kursk Oblast, said that 121,000 people had been evacuated or left Kursk Oblast on their own. The authorities are planning to evacuate 180,000 people from the region, he added.

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Olena Goncharova

Special Correspondent

Olena Goncharova is the Special Correspondent for the Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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