In the border region with Ukraine, rockets and propaganda make people feel the war. A visit to the residents of Belgorod, some of whom don’t even know from which side they are being shot at.
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Silke Bigalke, Moscow
When rockets fly over Belgorod, Ilya Kostyukov doesn’t hear the sirens. “There are no warnings,” says the opposition figure, and incidentally there are also no air raid shelters for the people in the Russian border region. At least the authorities are not revealing the coordinates of these bunkers, ostensibly for security reasons. Instead, basements are now the big issue: The governor has asked the residents of Belgorod to prepare them for emergencies, screw in new lightbulbs, drain damp basements, and distribute spare keys.