Russian Authorities Block Civilian Evacuations from Shelled Border Regions, HUR Says

A Kyiv Post source in the Ukrainian security services (HUR) said that Belgorod authorities are blocking Russian civilians’ evacuation to keep people present in the region for the March 15-17 presidential election.

The election, according to the Russian volunteer-fighters now fighting in Belgorod, is only a show-election intended to rubber-stamp President Vladimir Putin’s continued rule.

According to the HUR source, train stations are being blocked off for people trying to leave Belgorod.

“If there were an evacuation, there would be no elections,” the source said.

Asked by Kyiv Post if civilians can leave by their own transport, the source replied: “if they’re lucky,” saying that there are many checkpoints that they would have to evade.

Fighting between Ukraine-allied Russian fighters and Russian forces reportedly continued in Russia’s Belgorod region on Thursday, March 14. The anti-Putin groups fighting near the Ukrainian border region were the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), Freedom of Russian Legion (LSR) and the Siberia Battalion.

The fighting started on Tuesday, March 12, in what the volunteer-fighter groups said was months of planning against Putin’s “sham elections.”

In a Telegram post published Thursday at 12:32 p.m., the groups said “massive strikes” were launched against Russian forces.

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“The liberation of Russian regions from the Kremlin’s terrorist regime continues at these moments. Now massive strikes are being launched against Putin’s troops in the Belgorod and Kursk regions,” it reads.

The Russian volunteer-fighters also said that local authorities are preventing civilian evacuations from happening.

“We demand that governors stop carrying out the criminal orders of the Kremlin regime and not interfere with the evacuation of civilians from the combat zone, who themselves have already decided to leave their homes and save the lives of their families,” the volunteer fighters wrote.

You can read all the latest developments on this topic here.