Shebekino residents say authorities are charging 3,000 rubles to evacuate children

Residents of the Shebekino district, in Russia’s Belgorod, region have been complaining on local social media channels that local authorities have charged them 3,000 rubles (around $37) per child to evacuate children from cities on the border with Ukraine.

“Thank God I sent my kids to a camp in the Voronezh region yesterday. What it took to get on that list! They promised it would be free, and then at the last minute they said I needed to pay for transportation. So I had to pay 6,000 rubles (around $75) for both of them,” one resident reportedly said.

Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit (We’ll Explain) reports that two local residents confirmed the charges. The channel was able to verify the residents’ identities.

A similar message appeared on Russian social networking site VKontakte, when a Shebekinsky resident asked district head Vladimir Zhdanov why children were being sent to the Voronezh region on their parents’ dime. Zhdanov answered that “the decision was made so that children wouldn’t have to travel long distances on school buses.”

Mozhem Obyasnit reports that during a later conversation with journalists, Zhdanov denied that authorities were charging parents money. He did not explain his previous VKontakte comment.

The Belgorod region has experienced shelling every day since late May, causing regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov to order the evacuation of children from the Shebekinsky district to other regions further from the front lines.