Sawt Falasteen - Russia restricts entry to border villages due to shelling

Russia's Belgorod region has suffered months of deadly attacks, despite Russia launching a major ground offensive into the neighbouring Ukrainian region of Kharkiv in May to create a buffer zone against further shelling.

Over 200 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the region since the conflict in Ukraine began in February 2022, while artillery fire has cut power and water supplies to border villages, according to regional authorities.

"From July 23, we are limiting access to 14 settlements where the operational situation is extremely difficult," Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Checkpoints will be set up at the entrances to these villages, and adult men will only be allowed to enter if they wear a bullet-proof vest and helmet, he said.

"Access to public transport including taxis will be banned," he added.

"We will start implementing this from next Tuesday," Gladkov said, without giving any end-date for the measures.

The routine attacks on Belgorod have been a source of constant frustration for the Kremlin, which has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy and security on the home front.

Last week, Ukrainian strikes on the Belgorod region killed four people in a 24-hour period, while 20 more were injured.

- Moscow invited to peace summit -

The announcement came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signalled he would welcome Russia attending a future peace summit on ending the conflict, now in its third year.

The invitation marked a change of tone from last month, when Kyiv excluded Moscow from a high-level peace conference in Switzerland.

Russia reacted to Zelensky's invitation with scepticism.

"The first peace summit was not a peace summit at all. So perhaps it is necessary to first understand what he means," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Zvezda television channel.

Leaders and top officials from more than 90 countries gathered at the Swiss mountainside resort of Burgenstock in June for the first summit, which Russia derided as a waste of time.

Both Russia and Ukraine are worlds apart on the terms of a possible peace settlement.

Moscow insists it must keep all the territory it now occupies -- some 20 percent of the country -- while Kyiv demands all Russian soldiers retreat from Ukraine's internationally recognised borders, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

- 'Not worried' about Trump -

Washington said Monday that it backed Ukraine's decision to invite Russia to a second summit, but expressed doubt about whether Moscow was ready for talks.

"When they want to invite Russia to that summit, of course, that is something we support," US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists.

"We've always supported diplomacy when Ukraine is ready, but it has never been clear that the Kremlin is ready for actual diplomacy," he said.

Ahead of last month's summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open for negotiations and would announce a ceasefire immediately if Kyiv effectively surrendered territory that Moscow claims as its own.

Zelensky slammed Putin's demands as a territorial "ultimatum" reminiscent of those issued by Adolf Hitler, and Ukraine's Western backers including the United States reacted with scorn.

But there is growing apprehension in Kyiv about the long-term trajectory of the conflict, given Russia's recent battlefield gains and the potential for a Donald Trump victory in November's US elections.

Zelensky said on Monday he was "not worried" about the prospect of Trump winning and that he was still counting on support from the US, Ukraine's biggest financial and military backer.

Trump has suggested he would end the conflict very quickly if he won back the presidency, a promise Kyiv fears would mean being forced to negotiate with Moscow from a weakened position.

S.AbuJamous--SF-PST