A group of pro-Ukrainian Russian militants said on Sunday they captured two Russian soldiers during fighting in the Belgorod region in southern Russia and offered to exchange them during a one-on-one meeting with the region’s governor.

The joint statement of the Russian Legion of Freedom and the Russian Volunteer Corps was published in the Telegram channel of the former. Reuters was unable to independently verify this claim.

At the same time, Ukrainian forces continued shelling the Russian region overnight after two people were killed and hundreds of children were taken from the border the night before, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

“It was quite restless at night,” Gladkov said in Telegram, adding that the cities of Sebekino and Volokonovsky were badly damaged by shelling.

Removing children

More than 4,000 people have been resettled for temporary residence in the region bordering Ukraine from the south and west, the governor explained.

On Saturday, Gladkov accompanied about 600 children from the cities of Sebekino and Grayvoron to Yaroslavl and Kaluga.

“Children of Sebekino are very worried about their city,” he said. “I went to leave, they stopped me and anxiously began to ask questions.”

Sebekino, a town of about 40,000 on the border with Ukraine, and other parts of the Belgorod region have come under regular shelling in recent days, and Gladkov told Russian media that the region is now living in “real conditions of war.”

Source: Reuters, APE-MPE.