Belgorod Today: The Russian City Under Attack at the…

Not far from the famous Prokhorovka battlefield, site in 1943 of one of history's most massive tank clashes, Belgorod hosts a diorama museum dedicated to the Battle of Kursk.

The city, capital of an agricultural region in Russia near the Ukrainian border, had before 2022 a quiet profile as a Russian provincial center.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Belgorod has been a few kilometers from the border and front lines, becoming a recurring target of drone and rocket attacks.

Russian authorities have reported repeated attacks on the city and region, with civilian casualties and damage to residential buildings, while in the nearby Kursk region Ukrainian forces temporarily occupied some border villages in 2024, bringing the front line even closer to Belgorod.

Local authorities have several times ordered partial evacuations of areas closest to the border and strengthened civil defense measures in the city itself.

The entire area is excluded from any international tourist itinerary until the end of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

In peacetime, the region would offer the diorama museum of the Kursk-Prokhorovka battle and the agricultural landscape of south-central Russia, a destination for niche historical tourism.

Only a resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict can restore to Belgorod the normalcy of a border city no longer exposed to the direct fire of war.