Russian authorities on Sunday called on residents of an area on the Ukraine border to leave their homes as Ukrainian shelling intensified this week.
The district of Shebekino in the southwestern Belgorod region on the Ukraine border has been hit by daily shelling, killing several civilians and forcing villagers to flee.
The governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, urged residents to cooperate with authorities and evacuate from the area.
"I ask for the villages of, first of all, the Shebekino district that has been shelled, to listen to the position of authorities and leave — temporarily leave — their homes," Gladkov said on Telegram.
He said the goal was "to safeguard what is most important: your life and the lives of your close ones."
He said it was another "not calm night" in the district with "a lot of damage."
Gladkov spoke a day after two women were killed in border villages by shelling.
He said "more than 4,000 people" from border areas were currently in temporary housing in the Belgorod region.
He said authorities on Sunday would take minors from border villages and the children of mobilized soldiers fighting in Ukraine to youth camps.
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