Most of Belgorod Oblast residents flee from villages and district centre, governor says

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia's Belgorod Oblast, has reported that the majority of residents of the Grayvoron district had left their settlements.

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlet RIA Novosti citing Gladkov

Quote from Gladkov: "We are now going door-to-door in the border villages and [the city of] Grayvoron itself. Most of the population has left the territory. Those who do not have [transportation] means we help with our own transport, those who have the means leave [the settlements] on personal transport."

Background:

• On 22 May, Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion announced that they had crossed the border and were "liberating" the settlements of Belgorod Oblast from the current Russian authorities: they started with the villages of Kozinka and Gora-Podol – but they are seeking the "liberation" of all of Russia.
• Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod Oblast, claimed that a "reconnaissance and sabotage group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" entered the territory of the Grayvoron district.
• The Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, says Vladimir Putin was informed of the breach of the Russian border in Belgorod Oblast. Peskov said that work is underway to stamp out "Ukrainian saboteurs" from the territory of Russia and destroy them.
• Andrii Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, has described the events taking place in Russia's Belgorod Oblast on 22 May as the creation of a "security zone" to protect Ukrainian citizens. Yusov stressed that the operation was conducted exclusively by Russian citizens.
• Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, stressed that Ukraine is not directly related to the events that transpired in Russia's Belgorod Oblast on 22 May.

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