The echo of sirens warning of an imminent airstrike has now become a grim reality for the residents of Belgorod, a city located just 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
Compared to the destruction in most of it UkrainianRussian territories are largely unaffected.
Belgorod, 40km north of the border, is the key exception, a reminder that not all citizens can be protected from the conflict.
⚡️ There was an explosion at polling stations in #Belgorod pic.twitter.com/cuElQCA38C
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 15, 2024
As Russians began voting early today in the three-day presidential election, an alert of an imminent missile attack forced election officials to seek shelter at a polling station in Belgorod and voting was temporarily suspended, state news agency RIA reported. .
Vladimir Seleznyov, a pensioner who lived through the February 15 Plekhanov Street rocket attack that killed seven people, said it was hard to get used to the danger.
“Of course, the situation is difficult, but we live near the border. It would be an exaggeration to say we got used to it,” he told Reuters, which visited the city, which is rarely accessed by international media. “It goes without saying, of course, that we’re going to win, we’re going to dominate, but people are worried.”
In an old fortress town, now transformed into a modern city of 300,000 and once once more on the Russian front line, dozens of civilians have been killed in drone strikes and shelling from Ukraine since February 2022.
Explosions rocking Belgorod in russia now all day. Normal life becoming untenable. pic.twitter.com/RFsb11EosV
— FarleyFella (@Farleymarley16) March 15, 2024
Kiev denies targeting civilians as Moscow does, despite the fact that the Russia has launched drones and missiles once morest Ukraine that have killed thousands of civilians and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.
In the worst incident since World War II of loss of life by foreign enemy fire on Russia’s internationally recognized territory, 25 people were killed and more than 100 injured in rocket attacks in Belgorod on December 30 last year.
But President Vladimir Putin, who is certain to emerge victorious once more in elections on March 15-17, remains popular in Belgorod, as he is across Russia, reflecting how the war has consolidated support for him .
He calls it a “special military operation” and frames it as part of a long-running battle with a declining West that has humiliated Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Ukraine and its Western allies say the invasion was an aggressive and illegal one. land grab.
itself. Information on the number of injured cars is being specified.
⠀▪️In the Belgorod region, various damages were registered in several apartments of one residential building, 5 private residential buildings and two shopping centers. 8 cars were also damaged. pic.twitter.com/IjEgFwyryu— diana atanasova (@gabieatanasov13) March 15, 2024
In a state of war
For the people of Belgorod, their daily lives are often disrupted and the signs of war are evident.
Soldiers walk the streets and concrete blocks have been placed at bus stops to protect people from possible explosions.
Primary schools are distance learning, while secondary schools operate on a hybrid distance and in-person education model, much like many Ukrainian schools do.
Buses stop moving when sirens sound and passengers are forced to get off and walk. Shopping can prove to be a difficult undertaking and appointments are often cancelled. Thousands of people fled the surrounding area to escape the war.
Groups of civilian volunteers in Belgorod support the soldiers, a phenomenon common across Russia and Ukraine.
Galina, who collects hygiene items and digging tools every day and sends them to the army, said she is helping the effort to end the conflict.
Echoing words used by the Kremlin to characterize the leadership of Kiev, he spoke of the need to “de-Naziize” Ukraine and end “fascism” there. Ukraine and its allies dismiss the rhetoric as ‘nonsense’, noting that President Volodymyr Zelensky is of Jewish descent.
“There are no other options,” said Galina, who did not want to give her last name, as she stood in a warehouse of supplies meant for the soldiers. “I think that the work that (Putin) started in terms of the special military operation, he should complete it himself,” he added.
Cross-border attacks
Russia’s Defense Ministry said today that its forces repelled a Ukrainian cross-border attack attempt in the Belgorod region a day earlier.
In a statement, the ministry said Ukraine had attempted to land 30 soldiers by helicopter near the border village of Kozinka. He said they were pushed back by Russian soldiers and border guards.
Ukrainian officials said earlier that two Russian border provinces, Belgorod and neighboring Kursk, were under attack by anti-Kremlin Russian armed groups based in Ukraine.
According to protothema, the town of Sebekino, regarding 7 km from the border in the Belgorod region, was shelled in May and June last year by gunmen who had infiltrated the area. Large craters opened up on roads and buildings were hit and damaged.
At the time, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladokf had escorted around 600 children from Sebekino and Graivorov regions to the cities of Yaroslavl and Kaluga, far from the Ukrainian border.
Retired Valentina said she also temporarily left Sebekino last summer following her daughter persuaded her to do so, before returning. She said she hopes the war will end soon and those who left the city will return. “Everyone wants to go home,” he said, adding that he plans to vote for Putin. “He must end this war.”
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