The Russian region of Belgorod has declared an emergency after new Ukrainian attacks with Kyiv claiming hundreds of square miles of territory in its continuing incursion.
Belgorod’s governor Vyacheslav Gladko declared an emergency on Wednesday after the region began evacuation earlier on Monday.
In a video message posted on Telegram, he said: “The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be extremely difficult and tense.”
The declaration comes after Ukraine’s surprise incursion into the neighbouring Kursk region on August 6, the first time a foreign military has entered Russian territory since the Nazis in the Second World War.
Gladkov said regional authorities are now appealing to Vladimir Putin’s Russian government to declare a federal emergency.
He added that Ukrainian drones targeted two locations in Belgorod – the city of Shebekino and the village of Ustinka – but no casualties were reported.
Russia’s defence ministry reported on Wednesday that it had destroyed dozens of drones and four tactical missiles over the Kursk region, as part of a larger assault in which air defences downed 117 “aircraft-type” drones overnight.
Since Ukraine’s incursion began, over 120,000 people have been evacuated and 74 villages in the Kursk region are now under Ukrainian control.
This situation poses a potential embarrassment for Putin as he scrambles to halt the advance and “kick the enemy out” of Russia.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said its forces are making preparations for “next steps” in the Kursk region.
US president Joe Biden addressed the incursion on Tuesday, saying that he was receiving regular updates from his staff and that it was “creating a real dilemma for Putin.” Agency report
