Belgorod governor warns of evacuations if electricity, heating fail

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has urged residents to be prepared for potential relocation in the event of a severe energy disruption.

Gladkov warned that if the region experiences a complete loss of electricity and heating, residents should be ready to move. He noted that restoring power to homes and businesses solely through backup generators would not be sufficient, ASTRA reports.

However, the governor stressed that this is not a call for immediate evacuation:

"I am in no way saying that people should drop everything and start relocating to another region. Absolutely not. You just need to understand the sequence of actions in case of a difficult, emergency situation when there may be no heat or electricity. If possible, relocate and move children to relatives—somewhere there is heat and electricity."

The warning comes in the aftermath of attacks on January 8–9 that left hundreds of thousands of residents without electricity and heating. Gladkov previously described the damage to the region’s energy infrastructure as “practically catastrophic.”

By Vafa Guliyeva