Participants in the meeting included Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Presidential Aide Alexei Dyumin, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Natural Disaster Relief Alexander Kurenkov, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Service of National Guard Troops – Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard Troops Viktor Zolotov, and Chief of the General Staff – First Deputy Minister of Defence Valery Gerasimov.
First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, Governor of the Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of the Bryansk Region Alexander Bogomaz, as well as Acting Governor of the Kursk Region Alexei Smirnov joined the meeting via videoconference.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
The agenda of this meeting focuses on the situation along the Russian border in the Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk regions.
We must assess the developments unfolding there, and we will offer our evaluation. That said, what matters the most is addressing the urgent tasks we are facing right now based on the way the situation is expected to unfold.
It goes without saying that the main objective for the Defence Ministry is to force the adversary to withdraw from our territory and reliably secure our state border by working together with the Border Service.
The Federal Security Service must work with the National Guard as part of the counter-terrorist regime and effectively counter the enemy’s sabotage and reconnaissance groups. The National Guard has its own combat objectives too.
Civilian agencies must ensure that law enforcement and military agencies have everything they need. I will not go into details here, but this includes manufactured goods, transport, the construction sector, healthcare and financial support.
Finally, you must all combine your efforts and work with the governors of the corresponding regions to focus on the main task, which is to support the people who need our help and protection.
Before we move forward and hear from the meeting participants, I would like to make a few remarks.
It is now becoming increasingly clear why the Kiev regime rejected our proposals for a peaceful settlement, as well as those from interested and neutral mediators.
It appears that the enemy, with the support from their Western backers, is executing their directives, and the West is using Ukrainians as proxies in this conflict. It seems the opponent is aiming to strengthen their negotiating position for the future. However, what kind of negotiations can we have with those who indiscriminately attack civilians and civilian infrastructure, or pose threats to nuclear power facilities? What is there to discuss with such parties?
Second, these actions clearly aim to achieve a primary military objective: to halt the advance of our forces in their effort to fully liberate the territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics, the Novorossiya region. So, what is the current situation on the front lines, and what are the results? The pace of offensive operations by the Russian Armed Forces, volunteers, and veterans has not only remained steady but has actually increased by fifty percent. Our troops are advancing along the entire front.
Lastly, another clear objective of the enemy is to create discord and division within our society, to instil fear, and to undermine the unity and cohesion of the Russian people. They aim to disrupt the domestic political landscape. However, the response from Russian citizens has been resolute: there is widespread support for those in need, strong backing for the army, and, importantly, a rising number of individuals eager to join the ranks of those heroically defending Russia. Recently, there has been a notable increase in the number of people signing contracts with the Ministry of Defence.
The leaders of the Kiev regime are not only perpetrating crimes against the Russian people but are also, in effect, pursuing the destruction of their own citizens, the Ukrainian people, whom they evidently no longer view as their own. The casualties among the Ukrainian armed forces are rising sharply, including among their most effective units and divisions, which are being redeployed to our borders.
The adversary will undoubtedly face a strong response, and all the objectives we have set will certainly be achieved.
Let us proceed with our work. To start our meeting, I will now give the floor to the regional leaders.
Let us begin with the Bryansk Region. Please, go ahead.
Governor of the Bryansk Region Alexander Bogomaz: Good afternoon, Mr President.
I can say that today’s situation in the Bryansk Region is stable, the same as a month ago. We can see that the number of shelling attacks is in fact constant, with 80–90 attacks per week.
However, I would like to emphasise that we have seen lately that they have started shelling civilians more often. For example, on the previous day, the ninth, 11 out of the 22 attacks were against civilians, against people living there, buildings, vehicles, and buses. We compensate all damages from the regional budget.
Today we are not resettling people. Our security agencies are analysing the developments there, and we are making a common decision that we do not need to resettle people yet. But we are also working with people: we always offer them to leave for a temporary residence centre if they are afraid, but so far no one wants to. Therefore, we continue this work, and interaction with all security agencies has been established.
As part of the counter-terrorism operation, we have temporary residence centres for 1,576 people, and we can also deploy more than 32,000 if necessary. We have now inspected all temporary residence centres, considering the experience of the Kursk Region and have moved them more than 50 km away.
Today tasks have been set by the Defence Ministry, Mr Khusnullin holds meetings with us, and, in fact, everything is ready and prepared, and we are getting down to work. All the problems we had, such as financing and the shortage of profiled sheeting, have been solved.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
I would like to say once again that it is obvious for us that the enemy will continue trying to destabilise the situation in the border regions in order to destabilise the domestic political situation in Russia. Therefore, if the situation in the Bryansk Region is relatively calm today, it does not mean that it will remain the same tomorrow.
I would like to ask you to focus on this issue together with security agencies, with the headquarters that is being created by the Russian Federal Security Service with the support of the Russian National Guard. All the issues that need to be discussed to prepare for any developments, need to be prepared and resolved in advance together with the Emergencies Ministry.
Right?
Alexander Bogomaz: Right.
Vladimir Putin: Agreed.
Please, Belgorod Region.
Governor of the Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov: Good afternoon, Mr President.
Colleagues,
Recently, the situation has improved only in Belgorod. There have been only two missile attacks on Belgorod with cluster munitions compared to the first quarter of 2024. In fact, the situation in the border areas has sharply deteriorated, and the number of attacks by barrel artillery, mortars, and MLRS has increased greatly, as well as attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles that have increased many times over.
The number of destroyed and damaged housing in general has grown sharply in 2024. Over 30,000 houses and apartments have been damaged during 2.5 years, and we have now restored 25,000. Unfortunately, the situation along the border does not allow us to work efficiently. The most difficult situation is now in Shebekino, with 38,000 people living in the city and 85,000 in the area. In 2024, almost 300 people were injured and 36 died. We have three to five attacks per day, mainly from barrel artillery and MLRS, with three to five houses damaged almost completely: windows, roofs. Information is incomplete, but according to our calculations, about 50–70 percent of Shebekino residents have left the area today, and social tension in Shebekino is growing, because the main thing is that we cannot guarantee and ensure safety.
We are placing people in temporary accommodation centres. In total, we have 17,000 places deployed back in 2022. Now we have 2,100 people in temporary accommodation centres (in the region), and 1,000 people outside the region. After today’s events, we relocated about 10,000 people in the Krasnoyaruzhsky District, and another 1,500 places were added to temporary accommodation centres.
Today, 2,800 people are living outside the Belgorod Region (our limit is 6,500: those who have minor injuries and whose homes are damaged or completely destroyed). Thanks to your decision, 5,500 children have left the region. Overall, about 15,000 people this summer. This work will continue. In fact, in addition to Shebekino, these are Krasnaya Yaruga, Grayvoron, one third of the Belgorod District, Borisovsky District, and Valuysky District.
Mr President, we are very grateful for your decision to relocate 12,000 people from the towns that are now, in fact, closed. In general, we have almost no opportunity to use rescue equipment in the locations that are shelled daily. Why? Because the enemy destroys it. We do not have the opportunity to provide medical assistance, because the enemy destroys it. We do not often have the opportunity to restore electricity supply and we understand that, with winter approaching, the problem will grow many times over. In general, this situation concerns about 115,000 people in the border area.
(The Governor also touched upon the topic of payments for residents of areas affected by shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces, and writing off mortgage debts for people whose homes were completely destroyed.)
I hope that the current situation in Krasnaya Yaruga that arose this morning will be resolved thanks to the interaction between all security agencies, primarily the Defence Ministry and the border service; and I hope that tomorrow we will return people to their places of residence, with the exception of three settlements, primarily Kolotilovka, which is in fact being shelled constantly. We will make a decision on resettlement there and provide housing. There is such an opportunity in line with the decisions previously adopted by the Russian Government and by your decision, Mr President.
That is about all.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
Mr Manturov, please comment. We have discussed some of these issues with you right now. Please.
First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov: Yes, Mr President, thank you.
As for the Kursk Region, we maintain daily contact with Mr Smirnov. The reports are coming in from all the agencies that have established their response centres, above all the Emergencies Ministry. Work is being done to evacuate people to temporary accommodation centres.
In line with your decisions, payments are provided, and a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles per person is provided. Today we issued clarifications, including on the payments that are provided in an emergency. These are two different payments: 10,000 and 15,000 [rubles]. All necessary measures are being carried out; we are keeping an eye on them.
The same goes for Rosseti: transformers are constantly being damaged, power outages occur. Rosseti specialists quickly go to areas where it is safe. Switching occurs where it is impossible to go. I have just recently reported to you on the situation in Kurchatov.
Mr President, all other issues are under control, and we are working on them with the region promptly. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Look, Mr Gladkov has just raised several issues such as mortgages, and others. Can you respond directly to this now or not?
Denis Manturov: Concerning the Belgorod Region. I can say that the decision to put a moratorium on mortgage payments and consumer loans has been made and supported by you, regarding the Kursk Region. All banks have already taken up the work. This concerns Sber, VTB, and all other banking institutions that provided loans to residents of the Kursk Region. We will also quickly do the same in the Belgorod Region.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, it must be done.
Mr Khusnullin.
Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin: Mr President, we will prepare this decision, which is completely just, and it must be at once extended to the Belgorod, the Kursk, and possibly the Bryansk regions if such cases occur. Mr Manturov and I will develop the corresponding decisions and report to you.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
Mr Gladkov, finalise this document, please.
Vyacheslav Gladkov: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
The Kursk Region. Mr Smirnov, Go ahead. please.
Acting Governor of the Kursk Region Alexei Smirnov: Good afternoon, Mr President.
Colleagues,
The situation in the region is quite challenging right now. Currently, the enemy controls 28 communities. They have penetrated 12 kilometres deep into the territory of the Kursk Region, with a 40-kilometre-wide frontline.
Vladimir Putin: Listen, Mr Smirnov, the military will update us on the specifics of the frontline width and depth. What we need from you is an update on the socioeconomic situation and a report on the assistance provided to the people.
Alexei Smirnov: We have 28 communities in this zone, home to approximately two thousand people, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Additionally, UAV and missile attacks have significantly increased during this period. A total of 194 missiles and UAVs targeted the region, of which 147 were intercepted. A residential building, a nine-storey apartment block, was hit, resulting in 13 injuries. Just two nights ago, there was an explosion over the regional public administration building while we were all on duty.
Colonel General Yevgeny Nikiforov has arrived to coordinate our efforts. Coordination with all security forces has been established.
During this time, as per your instructions, Mr President, we organised the relocation and resettlement procedures into two stages. The first stage involved four districts within a 10-kilometre zone, including the Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts entirely. On August 8, all six border strongpoints became operational, and two additional districts, Bolshesoldatsky and Lgovsky, which are near the nuclear power plant, were included. In total, this affects 180,000 people. As of today, 121,000 have been evacuated, and work continues for the remaining 59,000. In addition to our federal services, voluntary civilian squads, volunteers, and the Young Guard are assisting us in this effort.
As of today, 53,000 places have been set up at temporary accommodation centres, with 20,000 provided by Moscow (a big thank you to Mr Sobyanin, who has been always there for us). Other regions across Russia have contributed 25,000 beds. We have an additional 2,400 places available in mobile temporary accommodation centres at the station, provided by Russian Railways. In total, there are 106 temporary accommodation centres housing 7,524 people, including 1,083 children. We also have reserve capacity: an Emergencies Ministry camp from the Federal Agency for State Reserves with 10,000 places has arrived, and an additional 10,000 places are about to be created in Moscow. Each temporary accommodation centre is staffed with psychologists from the Emergencies Ministry and local school staff, and offers free legal assistance.
Humanitarian aid is provided all day round. Today, there are 10,000 daily rations, 28,000 weekly food packages, and 112,000 litres of water; with 13,000 daily rations, 260,000 litres of water, and 148,000 food packages on the way. There are no problems. There is also a lot of additional humanitarian aid from residents. This is to say that we are not experiencing any shortages in this regard.
As for healthcare services, there are 1,912 available hospital beds. In addition, the Federal Medical-Biological Agency and the Healthcare Ministry deployed hospitals offering 100 beds each. The number of ambulance teams is equal to 108, with 61 of them working in the border area, and there are air ambulances, too. The supply of medicines and blood is sufficient. We continue to collect blood when necessary; there are no problems. The number of doctors who arrived in the Kursk Region is 422 people, with 436 doctors from Kursk and a nursing staff of 840 already hard at work.
Twelve civilians died and 121 were injured, including 10 children. A call centre is operating all day round, and we are receiving written updates all the time; there are reception desks in the administrative buildings; we received 35,000 applications from the people over the past days. We make payments of 10,000 rubles, the funds have been received. As of today, 2,100 people received this money, although 46,700 applications have been filed. We worked with the Ministry of Digital Development. Starting this morning we will be able to automatically transfer funds under a thousand applications per hour, so we are about to resolve this issue.
We received the funding to resettle 300 families from the shelled border area: 131 applications have been processed, people are looking for new housing, certificates have been issued, and the work continues. A decision has been made – thank you very much, Mr President – to introduce a moratorium on the payment of housing and utilities services and interest on loans. Emergency teams have been created, all services are working, and we are also working on the damage to manufacturing facilities and agricultural producers. We have sent a team just this morning. The day before yesterday, a Rosseti team failed to restore power supply in the Belovsky district in a single go: it came under fire, and the shells were with chemical weapons. They took cover at a police station. Everyone is alive, but both the police officers and the head of the village council were poisoned. As of today, they managed to fix it: the transformer has been repaired with the support of the National Guard, with the head of MRSK Centre (Rosseti Centre) personally present there. Half of the district is powered by electricity, and also the pig farm complex.
We have now started working on the Defence Ministry’s request to build 90 platoon strongpoints. This effort involves 350 units of hardware, as well as up to 5,000 construction workers. We are working closely with First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, the Ministry of Construction, and the Ministry of Transport.
In addition to this, we dug 40 kilometres of antitank ditches out of 46 kilometres, which means that we are about to complete this effort. Moreover, we embarked on the project to set up 40 checkpoints. The counter-terrorist operation was announced at 11 pm of August 9, 2024. We are working with the Federal Security Service of Russia and the Interior Ministry’s Department of Internal Affairs.
In terms of the issues we face, considering that the frontline has become quite blurry there, we sometimes struggle to locate our combat units. Volunteers are doing their job and are unrelentless in their efforts to evacuate people. We received applications from family members asking us to evacuate 3,500 people. Two volunteers have gone missing, while the voluntary people’s militia is now in the same area where a sabotage and reconnaissance group is operating. We evacuated about 2,000 people over the past few days. This is work in progress. In this context, it is essential that we know where the adversary is at any given moment.
There was a question on the payments of 10,000 and 15,000 rubles. Thank you so much for settling this matter. People expressed their concerns, since they did not understand whether one payment was part of the other or these were two separate disbursements. We can now reassure them. Thank you so much, Mr President, for resolving this matter. We will assess the damage at a later time.
The issue we are facing right now is that communities and district centres have become deserted. Of course, there are military units stepping in right now, and not everyone has left. The evacuation order was not mandatory, so shops are still open. We had to ban alcohol sales, and have been keeping a close eye on the situation in order to prevent looting.
Of course, there is always the danger that there are sabotage groups wearing our uniforms, driving our cars and carrying our documents. It is for this reason that we have stepped up our patrols. Moscow landed us its helping hand with the arrival of 1,000 people from a state enterprise in Moscow. We are now waiting for people from entities affiliated with the Transport Ministry, as well as our voluntary people’s militia entities to arrive in order to secure rail bridge and roads.
That said, we do hope that this issue will be solved so that they can be armed, just as was the case with Moscow. There were applications from 1,200 people. As of today, up to 500 people have been asked to work in shifts every day.
This is the end of my report. I am ready to answer your questions. Thank you.
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