The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, stated that three people, including a child, were injured in the latest strikes. He added that 16 people have been killed and 98 wounded this past week, along with the region that borders Ukraine being left without power. This comes days after earlier shelling forced closures across Belgorod. Students were not to attend school on Monday or Tuesday, and shopping centers were shut down on Sunday and Monday.

The evacuation order will be put into effect in multiple villages in and around Belgorod. On Friday, the first group of about 1,200 children will be evacuated.

Russia’s defense ministry said that it had shot down around 9 enemy shells over the city. They added that they had also destroyed two Ukrainian “sabotage” groups near the Kursk (a city north of Belgorod) and Belgorod border.

Earlier in the week, the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy stated that over 150 people were forced to evacuate due to shelling intensifying.

Russian President Putin has accused Ukraine of launching strikes inside Russia in order to disrupt elections, which he later won in a landslide victory. However, the election was looked down upon by critics, saying that they were neither free nor fair.

Kyiv has still not commented on the recent attacks.

Putin has also called on the Federal Security Service to hunt down pro-Ukrainian Russian paramilitary groups who were suspected of taking part in the attacks on these cities. These Ukraine-based groups claimed that they had crossed the border with Russia and were now fighting troops there. The Freedom of Russia Legion (FRL) and Siberian Battalion (SB) posted videos that purported to show their fighters in the regions of Belgorod and Kursk. The FRL and an exiled Russian politician also claimed that two villages were now in control of “liberation forces”. Russia’s defense ministry later stated that these breakthrough attempts from the various Russian pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups were thwarted.