2023-06-04 04:08:41
From the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Antonina Zaikina, a 75-year-old Russian, had packed a suitcase to be ready to flee her town of Chebekino, on the Ukrainian border. This week, that’s what happened.
Chebekino, a city of 40,000 inhabitants located in the Belgorod region, suffered artillery fire of unprecedented intensity, pushing thousands of inhabitants to take refuge in Belgorod, the regional capital thirty kilometers to the northwest, where they are taken care of.
“We left Chebekino because we were bombed so hard that the windows shattered,” says Antonina Zaikina, who has lived her entire adult life in this town. She says one of her neighbors was injured and had his hand amputated.
The conflict with Ukraine, which the Kremlin has long minimized, now fully affects certain Russian border regions, in particular that of Belgorod, hit by bombings and even armed incursions.
The Russian army said on Thursday that it had repelled a Ukrainian attempt to “invade” the Belgorod region, a week after a spectacular incursion by armed men which caused shock and showed the vulnerability of Russian borders.
These incursions were claimed by groups claiming to be Russian and fighting for kyiv. Ukrainian authorities deny any involvement.
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