Belgorod governor admits ‘complex’ situation amid reports of fresh Ukrainian incursion

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region, admitted to the “complex situation” being faced on Tuesday amid reports that a district in the region had come under Ukrainian fire.

In a video message posted on his Telegram channel early on Tuesday, Gladkov said that villages in the Krasnaya Yaruga district had been repeatedly shelled in the preceding 24 hours and attacked by 49 Ukrainian drones, 12 of which were intercepted.

Multiple pro-war Russian Telegram channels have reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) attempted to breach the border and enter the Belgorod region, which also borders Russia’s Kursk region, part of which has been occupied by Ukrainian forces since August.

Pro-war Telegram channel Dva Mayora reported that the AFU had tried to enter Russia through the Krasnaya Yaruga district, having amassed troops on the border overnight. The attempted incursion, which cost the AFU four armoured vehicles, three T-72 tanks and about 20 servicemen, according to pro-war military correspondent Yury Kotyonok, was ultimately unsuccessful, and pro-Russian Telegram channel Voenkory Russkoy Vesny shared video footage of what it said was AFU equipment ablaze at the border.

The road to the district’s main town, Krasnaya Yaruga, has been closed, the Bletgorod Telegram channel reported, with cars apparently being “turned around and sent away”, though it was still possible to leave the town.

Meanwhile, a local Telegram channel reported that a school in the village of Grafovka had been severely damaged in the combined shelling and drone attacks, while another claimed the village, which is just 1.5 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, was being evacuated.

There has been no official confirmation of the attempted incursion by the AFU from the Russian authorities.

The Russian Defence Ministry announced the recapture of Sudzha in the neighbouring Kursk region on 13 March. The town had been under AFU control since August.

However, any further Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory would be an unwelcome development for regional leaders, especially since Vladimir Putin’s Wednesday visit to the neighbouring Kursk region, during which he ordered the Russian military to “fully liberate” the region.