A state of emergency was declared in Belgorod near the Ukrainian border in October. Attacks on the Russian region are increasing. Two people were killed when the shelling was repeated. In addition, drones are said to have attacked the annexed peninsula of Crimea.
The Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia, has been attacked with drones, according to local authorities deployed by Moscow. Two of the unmanned aerial vehicles had “already been shot down,” said the governor of the Sevastopol region, Mikhail Rasvoyaev, in the online service Telegram. They should have attacked a power and heating plant in the Balaklava district. There was no damage. The Black Sea Fleet intercepted three more drones over the sea near the port city.
As the naval base of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol is strategically important for Russia. However, Ukraine has repeatedly attacked the city from the air with combat drones and once from the sea with remote-controlled unmanned boats. Even if there was no major damage, Russia has moved some of its ships to the port of Novorossiysk on the mainland as a precaution.
On February 24, Russian forces attacked Ukraine from various directions, most notably from Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. The peninsular authorities deployed by Moscow said last week that after the withdrawal of Russian troops from parts of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, the defense systems in Crimea would be expanded.
According to Russian sources, three people died in explosions in two Russian locations near the border with Ukraine. In the city of Schebekino in the Belgorod region, about seven kilometers from the Ukrainian border, a woman was killed by Ukrainian shelling, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. She suffered a head injury from the shelling and died in an ambulance.
According to Gladkov, a couple was also killed by the explosion of “unidentified ammunition” in the border town of Staroselje in the west of the region. A state of emergency was declared in the town at the end of October. According to Gladkow, investigative authorities are investigating the case.
The Russian region of Belgorod had been repeatedly shelled in recent months. In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin included the region in a zone in which increased security measures apply.
Gladkov told the Russian state news agency Tass on Monday that the authorities in Belgorod had “actively reinforced the borders” since April. He posted images on Telegram showing the construction of a “security line” at the border that looks like a ditch.
In the middle of the month, the head of the Russian Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced that his organization had begun training civilians in Russian regions near Ukraine. Fortifications would also be built.
