Russian authorities are using their own citizens as a “human shield” while resisting calls by pro-Ukraine forces to evacuate the Belgorod and Kursk border regions, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.
Three units of Russian defectors who have switched their allegiances to fight for Ukraine urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to order an evacuation for the cities of Belgorod and Kursk earlier this week as they prepared to shell the positions of Putin’s troops in the area.
“We are forced to inflict a strike on the military positions,” the groups said in a joint statement on Wednesday. “To avoid civilian casualties, we urge everyone to leave the cities immediately. We urge the local authorities to save people’s lives and start evacuating the cities of Kursk and Belgorod.”
Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, said during a Ukrainian television appearance on Thursday that Russian authorities had ignored the warning and had opted to instead put the residents in harm’s way to protect Putin’s “terrorist regime.”
Photo by Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
“The authorities are once again trying to use civilians, their own fellow citizens, as a human shield in order to protect the Russian terrorist regime,” Yusov said before claiming that residents were being blocked from using major transportation hubs that would allow them to leave the cities, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Putin’s office and the Russian military via email on Thursday night.
The defector groups, collectively known as the “Siberian Battalion,” said earlier this week that they had crossed over into Russian territory and were on a mission to “liberate” their fellow Russians “from poverty” under Putin.
Members of the battalion, which is made up mostly of ethnic minorities, told Russian-language channel Current Time TV in November that they had joined with Ukraine both due to discrimination they faced in Russia and opposition to Putin’s war.
In a post to Telegram on Thursday, the Siberian Battalion said that they had established a “humanitarian corridor” that would be in place until Friday morning to allow “civilians and Russian military personnel to freely leave the specified settlements.”
“We call for the urgent evacuation of residents of the following settlements in the border areas,” the battalion said. “Save your lives and the lives of your children! We see that Putin’s troops are hiding among civilians, so our task is to ensure maximum security for the local population.”
A subsequent post claimed that “panic is spreading” in the Belgorod region border town Grayvoron, while also maintaining that cars spotted leaving the area indicated “residents of Grayvoron heeded the call of the Russian armed opposition.”
Prior to the battalion’s claims this week, there were multiple indications that Russia is willing to use Ukrainians as human shields. Shortly before Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Putin warned that Russian troops would “stand behind the people” in Ukraine and dare Kyiv’s troops to “shoot their own people.”
Last December, a video emerged that purportedly shows Russian troops using captured Ukrainian military members as shields while fighting in close quarters in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.