Governor of the Belgorod region of Russia Vyacheslav Gladkov says that “the enemy is no longer present” in the area, including the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, as per his official Telegram account.

“Today, the enemy is no longer present in the Belgorod region. <…> The enemy is not present in Novaya Tavolzhanka,” the governor said.

Yesterday, 5 June, Gladkov reported that the regional authorities could not enter the territory of the Novaya Tavolzhanka village. Around 100 people were still located there, however it was impossible to get an accurate number because of the non-stop shelling.

Novaya Tavolzhanka is a village in the Shebekinsky district of the Belgorod region. Previously, the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed that it had complete control over the village, from which all residents had been evacuated.

“The fighters of the Russian Volunteer Corps have been controlling the Novaya Tavolzhanka village for several days. I want to remind all citizens of Russia that this is not a little abandoned village — this place has a population of 5,000 people. Now it’s empty, there are only fighters of the Russian Volunteer Corps here. There’s no other government in this region,” representative of the corps Denis Nikitin (Kapustin) said.

On the same day, Russia’s Defence Ministry stated that the army and the FSB units had thwarted attempts of “two Ukrainian groups” to enter the territory of Russia near the aforementioned village. The ministry claimed that “saboteurs” had tried “to cross the Seversky Donets River and land on the outskirts of Novaya Tavolzhanka”, but they were eliminated by air strikes and artillery fire. The ministry reported having destroyed over 10 “saboteurs” and two boats.