The governor of the Belgorod region called to “join” Kharkiv to it

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, called the best solution to the problem of shelling in this Russian region “joining” Ukrainian Kharkov to it. He made such a statement on the air of the Rossiya 1 TV channel, answering a correspondent’s question.

When asked to clarify whether he believes in such a possibility, Gladkov said that this would be the best solution to the problem of shelling.

Russian troops attacked Kharkiv on the first day of a large-scale invasion of Ukraine – February 24, 2022. Part of the territory of the region was occupied, the storming of the city, however, was unsuccessful. In September, after the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian troops left almost the entire territory of the Kharkiv region.

The annexation of this region is not among the officially announced goals of the invasion of Ukraine – the so-called special military operation. Among them, however, there was no annexation of the other four Ukrainian regions, which Russia announced in the fall. However, among these goals, the “protection of the residents of Donbass” was declared. An hour and three months after the start of the full-scale invasion, fighting in Donbas continues, including shelling of Russian-controlled territories.

The authorities of the Belgorod region have been reporting shelling from Ukrainian territory more and more recently. Gladkov himself claimed the other day that he came under fire in the city of Shebekino. The shelling of Shebekino was also reported on Monday. As a rule, Ukraine does not comment on such messages.

The governor called the situation in the region a “de facto war” (as a rule, the Russian authorities avoid this word when describing hostilities in Ukraine) and stated that at least five sabotage and intelligence groups entered the region from the territory of Ukraine. Attention was drawn to the recent raid in the Graivoronsky district, which was carried out, according to their statements, by fighters of volunteer units fighting on the side of Ukraine, consisting of Russian citizens. After this raid, Gladkov said that he had many questions for the Ministry of Defense of Russia.