Governor issues evacuation order as Kyiv increases military activity just across the border and maintains Kursk push.
Russia has begun evacuations in the Belgorod region as it eyes rising military activity across the border in Ukraine.
The governor of Belgorod announced on Monday that he had ordered civilians in one district of the region to head for safety. Russian forces are battling an Ukrainian offensive in the neighbouring Kursk region.
“The enemy is active on the border of the Krasnoyaruzhsky district”, Vyacheslav Gladkov warned on the Telegram messaging platform on Monday.
“For the health and security of our population, we’re beginning to move people who live in Krasnoyaruzhsky to safer places,” he said. “I am sure that our servicemen will do everything to cope with the threat that has arisen.”
It was unclear from Gladkov’s statement how many Russian residents have been evacuated so far in Belgorod, which has regularly come under fire from Ukrainian missiles and drones in recent months.
Kyiv is reported to have sharply increased military activity near its border with Belgorod since its forces pushed into Kursk early on August 6.
Russia has promised a strong reaction to what is Ukraine’s biggest incursion into Russia since Moscow invaded its neighbour in 2022.
More than 76,000 people have fled the border area in Kursk.
Apparently caught by surprise, Moscow is now reported to have stabilised the front in Kursk, although Ukraine has carved out a sliver of territory where battles were continuing on Monday, according to Russian war bloggers.
Ukraine has now broken its previous silence on the attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukraine had launched an incursion into Russian territory to “restore justice” and pressure Moscow’s forces.
Russia has imposed a sweeping security regime in the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions. Its ally Belarus said it was bolstering troop numbers at its border, with Minsk complaining that Ukrainian drones had violated its airspace.
The audacious Ukrainian attacks on Russian sovereign territory are seen as part of Kyiv’s bid to show the West that it can still muster major military operations while trying to gain a bargaining chip ahead of possible ceasefire talks.
Russian forces, which have a vast numerical supremacy and control 18 percent of Ukrainian territory, have been advancing this year along the 1,000km (620-mile) front line in east Ukraine.