Russia restricts civilian access to villages in border region shelled by Ukraine

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Access to 14 villages in Russia's southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine will be shut off for most civilians, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Tuesday, citing the "extremely difficult" situation there due to Ukrainian shelling.

Announcing the new restrictions in a video posted to his Telegram channel, Gladkov said that beginning next week, only adult men accompanying military or government officials would be allowed into the settlements. The men must travel in armoured vehicles and wear bulletproof vests and helmets, he added.

"I hope you will agree that it is unacceptable to let women and children into settlements that are shelled every day," Gladkov said.

"We have already lost a lot of civilians, we have a lot of wounded. And, of course, our task is to maximise security measures."

The Belgorod region comes under frequent fire from Ukrainian shelling and drones, with four civilians injured overnight on Tuesday.

Air raid sirens wail almost daily in the regional capital of the same name, just 40 km (25 miles) north of the border.

Ukraine says Russian shelling of Ukrainian towns and cities has been devastating and after nearly two-and-a-half-years of war Russian forces are now in control of around one fifth of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin said in May that Russian forces are working to carve out a buffer zone in Ukraine's northeast to protect Russia from attacks launched by Kyiv's forces across the border.

Gladkov's announcement is a sign that the security situation in the region may have grown more severe, prompting officials to do more to safeguard the civilian population.

More than 200 civilians have been killed in the Belgorod region since the start of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine in Feb. 2022, Gladkov told the state-run TASS news agency on Tuesday. Over 1,100 have been wounded.

Some residents could move to temporary evacuation shelters, Gladkov said, but he acknowledged there wouldn't be space for everyone. He pledged monthly payments ranging from 10,000-15,000 roubles ($110-170) for families to secure housing elsewhere, adding that utility payments would be paused and defence ministry personnel would guard unoccupied houses.

In his video message, Gladkov urged residents to be "sympathetic" to the difficulty of the decision.

"When a person leaves his home, the worry - where he will live, what will happen to his property - leads to big grievances, big, complicated emotional discussions," he said.

"But the most important thing is a person's life."

($1 = 88.4455 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Gareth Jones)