“The situation is extremely tense,” said Monday evening the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, the target of an incursion by armed fighters from Ukraine. “A large part of the population” has left the territory, he added on Telegram messaging. This Tuesday, May 23, the same governor denounces several drone attacks in the region and the continuation of the anti-terrorist operation.
On the other side of the border, a little further south, in Bakhmout, the fighting continues as mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner declared their capture of the city this weekend. According to the newspaper Kyiv IndependentRussians and Ukrainians still clash, but outside the city, while the center is now in Russian hands.
Russia: several drone attacks in the Belgorod region, after an armed incursion
The Russian region of Belgorod is the target on Monday of an incursion by armed fighters from Ukraine, which forced Russia to decree an “anti-terrorist” regime and to evacuate civilians in an attempt to repel this new attack on its soil. Several drone attacks targeted houses and an administrative building in the Russian region of Belgorod overnight from Monday to Tuesday, local authorities said. These attacks, which took place in Graivoron, the capital of the district of the same name, and in the village of Borissovka, did not cause any casualties or injuries, the governor of the Belgorod region said on Telegram. Vyacheslav Gladkov.
If other attacks have taken place in recent weeks in this border region, it is the first to have taken on such a scale, with several villages hit by shells. This offensive also illustrates the permeability of Russian defences.
In response, the FSB (Russian security services) introduced in the afternoon the “legal regime of counter-terrorist operation zone” in the region, giving increased powers to the authorities to carry out armed operations, control civilians or still evacuate people. This is a first since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, indicated that the fighting had left eight people injured, and that the civilians were leaving the affected area. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, who said it was an attempt by kyiv to “divert attention” from Bakhmut’s downfall.
Armed incursion: Russia evacuates civilians from Ukraine border area
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, the scene Monday of an ongoing armed incursion led by a group from Ukraine, said civilians were leaving the affected area and said he hoped for a quick victory for Russian forces.
“We are completing a door-to-door […] A large part of the population has left the territory concerned, we are helping with our means of transport those who do not have one”, said the governor, Viatchelsav Gladkov, on Telegram, before adding that he hoped “that our soldiers will accomplish their mission soon and eliminate the enemy”.
According to the media Kyiv Independent, the streets of Bakhmout are no longer under Ukrainian control
Ukrainian soldiers fighting around Bakhmut told the Kyiv Independent that fighting on the outskirts of the city continued, but the Ukrainian army had lost control of the last streets of high-rise buildings inside the city limits. “Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials acknowledge that Ukrainian troops have been driven out of the last buildings and are now defending positions in the low-density residential area on the outskirts of the city,” the newspaper wrote.
Officially, Russians and Ukrainians continue to dispute the claim to control of Bakhmout. The Ukrainian army claims to carry out counter-attacks in this devastated city, which the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and Moscow claimed they had taken control of over the weekend. The boss of the Wagner Group, Evgueni Prigojine, has also announced the forthcoming departure of his troops, to leave the positions to the Russian army.