2023-06-03 21:31:29
Artillery fire of unprecedented intensity forced thousands of residents of the border region to take refuge in Belgorod, where temporary accommodation centers were opened.
The fights invite themselves again on Russian soil. On Saturday June 3, new Ukrainian bombardments left at least two dead and two injured in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine. In this territory hit in recent days by heavy fire, the pro-Ukrainian legion Svoboda Rossii (“freedom from russia“) again claimed on Friday to fight Russian forces. This group presents itself as Russians facing Vladimir Poutine, for Russia to be part of the “free world». Moscow denounces a group of “terrorists».
«We have active fighting on the outskirts of the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka (in the Belgorod region). Unfortunately, there are injured legionnaires, but freedom is won by blood“, said this Friday this legion in a press release reported by the Reuters agency. The latter states,not being able to verify the situation».
5 civilians killed according to Russia
For his part, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Russian governor of the region, said in a statement on Telegram that a “elderly womanwas killed by gunfire in the town of Novaya Tavoljanka, bordering Ukraine. She was reportedly injured in the shoulder and hospitalized.
Another woman succumbed tomany injuriesof shrapnel in the nearby village of Bezliudovka, the governor said, adding that a man was also injured by shrapnel.chest and upper and lower limbsand hospitalized.
Earlier in the day, he said five civilians were killed in Friday’s shootings in the Belgorod region, according to an updated report.
Thousands of Russian refugees in Belgorod
Chebekino, the flagship town of the district of 40,000 inhabitants, is subjected to artillery fire of unprecedented intensity, which has prompted thousands of inhabitants to take refuge in Belgorod, thirty kilometers to the northwest.
«We left Chebekino because we were bombed so hard that the windows explodedsays Antonina Zaikina, who has lived her entire adult life in this city. His city, for months, had already been subjected to regular and sometimes deadly bombardments. But nothing so strong. “Now they hit the center of town», indicate Antonina Zaikina. «Lots of buildings are destroyed.»
The mayor of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov, told AFP on Friday that around 5,000 people fleeing the bombings had registered with the authorities. Several hundred of them are housed in temporary accommodation centers opened in the city.
Russians fleeing the bombardments found refuge at the Belgorod Arena. OLGA MALTSEVA / AFP
The biggest of them is in the Belgorod Arena, a sports complex transformed into a huge dormitory. Hundreds of metal beds have been installed there and are occupied by displaced people.
Yevgeny Klioutchnikov, a 44-year-old warehouse worker from Chebekino, barely slept for two days because of the shelling.incessant” on the city. Then, Thursday, it was too much. He left for Belgorod by bus. According to him, his city now looks like a ghost town dotted with bomb craters. “If the government does not help us to rebuild and does not give us housing, all the inhabitants (of Chebekino) will be homeless“, he regrets.
The evacuees interviewed by AFP say they are satisfied with their reception in Belgorod, organized in a calm and professional manner. Many praise the action of the governor, Viatcheslav Gladkov. And all say they want to go home.
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Cross Border Raids
Moscow said on Thursday that it had repelled with its air force and artillery an attempted land attack from Ukraine in the region. These new attacks follow a spectacular armed incursion vers Belgorod May 22 and 23. What Moscow describes as groups of “sabotageUkrainians had entered the region, showing the vulnerability of Russian borders.
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The cross-border raids are aimed at expanding Russian defenses and forcing Moscow to divert troops from inside Ukraine to reinforce the border, Alexei Baranovsky, spokesman for the political wing of the Ukraine, told Reuters. freedom from russia. “One of our tactical goals is to attract Russian troops from other parts of the Ukrainian front,” he said in an interview in Warsaw on Thursday.
“It’s one goal, the other is to show Russians that a different country is possible, that an armed group has appeared and is ready to fight for freedom. We want people to join us”, he added. He said the unit was part of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, which is controlled by Kiev, but the chain of command no longer applied to Russian volunteer fighters once they entered Russian territory. According to Swiss analyst Christophe Tymowski,Russian soldiers from Belgorod“would have even joined”the Russian liberation movement to fight […] against Putin».
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