on the border with Ukraine, Belgorod hides and curses the Russian power which seems to forget it

After each attack on the region, the Telegram account of the Belgorod oblast governor gains subscribers. Vyacheslav Gladkov now has almost 400 000. And many of them start their day by watching him, facing the camera, in his car, listing the names of the districts bombed in the night, the number of victims and, more recently, the operations to evacuate children to other other regions.

According to Russian media 7X7, 137 civilians have died in Russia as a result of strikes from Ukraine since the start of the war, including 95 in the Belgorod region alone. The deadliest took place on December 30. Rocket fire on the city center of this city of 335 000 inhabitants left 25 dead and more than a hundred injured.

Belgorod had already been targeted. The neighboring locality of Chebekino (40 000 inhabitants) had even been almost completely evacuated in June 2023 when it was under daily fire from the Ukrainian army. But in the regional capital, life seemed to continue as normal. “This bombing has broken the illusion of a peaceful city, explains Nikita Parmienov, a journalist in exile abroad from Belgorod. Although the war was taking place 70 km away, and people were dying in the Karkhiv region, in Belgorod there were still parties and concerts. The authorities entertained the idea of ​​a wall that separated them from all this. And then suddenly the residents saw cars burning, people dying, blood, broken windows…”

“Everyone is afraid”

Governor Gladkov himself admits this. “Everyone is afraid”, he recognized during a visit to Moscow on January 12, breaking with the Kremlin’s speech which, two months before the presidential election, strives to demonstrate that the conflict with Ukraine does not affect directly the daily life and security of Russians. In the border region, the start of the school year has been postponed until January 19 and 400 children have already been evacuated to neighboring towns. Some residents say the town is eerily empty and that they know of many people who have fled on their own.

Oleg Ksenov was one of them. This owner of a restaurant, a few steps from the square bombed at the end of November, left the city immediately. “I had promised my wife that when the first packets of Grad [roquettes de conception soviétique utilisées par les deux camps] would arrive, we would leave. Not only did they arrive, but we saw them right above us and miraculously survived. My wife is pregnant, I don’t want to put her at risk.”explains this young man with a well-trimmed beard who also organizes humanitarian evacuations for the inhabitants of bombed villages in the region.

On the windows of his restaurant, Oleg installed heavy wooden panels which obstruct the view but protect his customers from possible shards of glass. Other residents put tape on the windows, as the authorities advise them. The municipal services may have quickly cleaned up the most visible traces of the attack of November 30, but in the city there are now numerous signs indicating that the war is indeed here. At the hotel where we are staying, we are greeted by signs indicating where the shelter is in the event of an air alert. The attack showed that existing shelters were often inaccessible, further increasing residents’ anger.

Residents offended that civilians could be targeted

Igor, a retiree, came with his wife from a neighboring village to lay flowers at one of the improvised memorials in the city center, not far from the site of the strike. “We didn’t think such a thing could happen in a peaceful townexplains this septuagenarian. There are no soldiers here. Bombing civilians, we cannot imagine that this is possible. Even the fascists didn’t do that.”, he says before his wife reminds him that the Nazis bombed civilian populations during the Second World War. His dismay is shared by many residents who say they do not understand why the Ukrainian camp could have targeted them.

“Ours do not target civiliansexplains Karina, a teacher, with a convinced air. It’s scary, it’s not right.”

“Bombing a weapons factory is one thing, but targeting a central square knowing that children are on vacation and walking around there is despicable.”

Karina, resident of Belgorod

at franceinfo

Like those of Chebekino last spring, the inhabitants of Belgorod, for the most part, adhere to the official Kremlin discourse according to which the Russian army only carries out “high-precision strikes” against military installations. The incomprehension is all the more significant as this Russian city has long lived in symbiosis with that of Karkhiv, 70 km away on the Ukrainian side.

“Half of the inhabitants studied in Karkhiv, says Karina. It’s a big city with more than a million inhabitants, we went there to dance and sing there, on Saturdays and Sundays. There was a train every hour to go there.” Karina has family in Karkhiv, as does Igor, whose wife is from Ukraine’s second city. “We keep in touch with themsays this retiree. But some became very aggressive. It is no longer possible to speak with them.”he seems to be surprised, adopting this conception, common among Russians, of a nameless, faceless war, without responsibility. “It’s all the fault of the Americans and Europeans”he concluded before walking away.

In his restaurant, Oleg knows this attitude well. Told him that he expected that sooner or later the city would be hit. “When I said that, some people told me it was because I supported Ukraine. But no. I was just trying to make them understand that this conflict would have consequences. We are 30 kilometers from the border. He was very naive to consider that this would have no consequences. Now people are lost. They no longer know who to blame after this realization”he notes.

“Moscow has abandoned us”

If there appears to be no opposition to the war in Belgorod, if only because this opinion can surely land you in prison, a certain resentment towards Moscow is emerging. “During Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s speech, many were offended that he did not have a word for Belgorod when the events had taken place just before laments Anastasia, a student from the city. How could we not talk about it? ? This is absolutely incomprehensible.”takes offense to the young girl who says she feels “abandoned”. On social networks, some residents did not hesitate to criticize the silence of the Kremlin and the coverage of the federal media.

The television channels devoted only around thirty seconds to the bombing of December 30, yet by far the deadliest for civilians that Russia has suffered since the start of the conflict. Worse, a presenter pronounced “Belgrade” instead of “Belgorod”, reminding residents of the reports last June where journalists systematically damaged the name of Chebekino then under bombing. “People were writing so many protest messages on Channel 1’s websiterecalls journalist Nikita Parmienov, that they set up a system that automatically deleted the message if you wrote Chebekino. So people wrote it in Latin characters, or putting dots, spaces… They said: we are Russia, we are being bombed, killed, and you don’t see it ? Are you crazy ?” Anastasia, the student, runs a small blog. On the day of the bombing she wrote : “Belgorod is the coffin in which we will all be buried. We will all lose our lives. And everyone will forget us.”