More than 300 people including 100 children are staying in Stary Oskol
Anna Demkina, the 36-year-old food industry technologist from Belgorod, is seen with her 2 kids in an apartment of the temporary accommodation center for those evacuated from Belgorod following recent alleged Ukrainian shelling attacks, in Stary Oskol on January 11, 2024. Olga MALTSEVA / AFP
Sitting with her two children in a hotel room in Russia, Anna Demkina only watches cartoons.
The 36-year-old engineer said she did not want to see the images of the conflict in Ukraine on the news.
At the beginning of January, Demkina left the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine and moved to the town of Stary Oskol, two hours away by road.
“We decided (to leave) because of the children. We were scared for their lives,” she said.
“Wherever they were, in the house or in the kindergarten, we were defenseless.”
Demkina’s children are aged two and four.
The family have been told by local official that they can stay where they are until the end of the “special military operation” — the official term used to describe Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.
Belgorod, a regional capital with a population of 335,000, is regularly targeted by Kyiv in response to massive strikes in Ukraine which have killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.
On 30 December, the city center came under attack in the deadliest strikes inside Russia since the start of the conflict on 24 February 2022.
Twenty-five people were killed, including children, and around 100 more were injured.
The strikes on Belgorod have continued since then and hundreds of civilians have chosen to leave.
They are being assisted by local authorities even though no formal evacuation has been organized.
The regional governor on Wednesday said 400 children would leave the city and announced that the school holidays would be extended until 19 January.
Residents of the city have been asked for the first time to tape up their windows so as to stop the glass from shattering in case of further strikes.
In Stary Oskol, Demkina has found refuge with more than 300 people including 100 children also from Belgorod, said Alexei Oleinikov a municipal officer from the civil protection agency.
“We are in an area where there are no strikes,” the official said.
The hotel hosting Demkina and several dozen other evacuees puts on activities in a bid to help them relax.
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