 Kiev deploying more troops near Russia's Belgorod region. The number of Ukrainian personnel deployed near localities in the Karkov region, bordering on southwest Russia's Belgorod region, has been increasing. Andrey Marachko, a retired colonel in the People's Militia of the so-called Lugansk People's Republic, told Tafts. The number of soldiers of the Ukrainian units in localities in the Karkov region that border on Russia's Belgorod region has been increasing. Also, there has been an increase in the number of joint patrols comprising both law enforcement officers and civilians who use various pretexts to act as escorts. Marachko reported citing Russian reconnaissance data. According to him, among other things, the Ukrainian military has been using civilians to be shown roads and paths of local significance and for help with other inquiries. In such situations, the Regional Crisis Centre reported that residents had begun receiving phone calls from alleged territorial defence authorities with a request to leave the Belgorod region. The regional authorities are ready to provide assistance to people leaving the city and accommodate them at temporary accommodation centres, for example at the Belgorod arena. General Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, but he said that these are fake calls. The territorial self-defense authorities operational in the Belgorod region do not make phone calls to local residents, he added. Before this, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov reported that Russian forces had thwarted the activity of three Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the Kupiansk area.