Russia’s Belgorod declares state of emergency after Ukraine shelling

A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Belgorod following attacks by Ukrainian forces.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation was “extremely difficult” due to daily shelling in the region.

“Houses are destroyed, civilians died and were injured,” he said.

It follows Ukraine’s surprise cross-border attack in Russia’s Kursk region last week, leading to mass evacuations and a state of emergency being declared there by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a video on Telegram, Governor Gladkov said he would be appealing to the government to declare an emergency “at the federal level”.

He said the city of Shebekino and the village of Ustinka had been attacked by Ukrainian drones. No casualties have been reported as of yet.

Russia says it shot down 117 drones overnight, which mainly targeted four regions – Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Mr Gladkov said there had been 23 drone attacks over the past 24 hours in Belgorod.

Shelling and shrapnel had damaged a church, 14 houses, an administrative building, several vehicles and a gas supply line, he said.

He added that one civilian had been wounded as a direct result of a drone attack in the urban Shebekinsky district.

Belgorod lies just south of the Kursk region, the location of Ukraine’s deepest incursion into Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops had advanced further into Russian territory, while army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed Kyiv had “control over 40 square kilometres” with 74 settlements taken.

But exactly how much Russian territory has been seized is uncertain, and there is scepticism over Syrskyi’s previous claim that a total of 1,000 sq km is under Ukrainian control.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman said Heorhiy Tykhy said Kyiv was not interested in “taking over” Russian territory.

“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace… the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop,” he told reporters.

President Putin claimed on Monday that Ukraine had refused Russian proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan.

“It appears that the enemy, with the help of his Western masters, is fulfilling their will, and the West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians,” he said.

Russian’s foreign ministry special envoy Rodion Miroshnik has described Ukraine’s incursion as a “terrorist action”, accusing Ukraine of putting the prospect of peace talks “on a long pause” by attacking the Kursk region.

President Zelensky has long said Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian forces leave all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which was annexed in 2014.

Russia has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian advance, with almost 200,000 Russians having fled their homes in parts of the Kursk region.

Moscow insisted on Tuesday that Ukrainian attempts to push deeper had been thwarted, but this has been proved wrong before.

In his first comments since the operation, US President Biden said that the offensive was “creating a real dilemma for Putin”.

The prime ministers of Finland and Estonia, meanwhile, said they supported Ukraine’s military operation in Kursk at a joint press conference on Wednesday.

Last week, the German Foreign Ministry said Ukraine was entitled to self-defence which was “not limited to its own territory”.

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