The Russian military in Ukraine complained that they could not get logs from Belgorod volunteers to build caponiers and dugouts. The transfer of the tree was forbidden by the authorities of the Belgorod region, who demand to coordinate the issue with the command at the forefront. There is practically no connection with the commanders, it is impossible to sign documents for sending logs.
Yulia Shchedrina, deputy governor of the Belgorod region, said the authorities are trying to prevent logs from falling into the hands of the Ukrainian military through bureaucratic procedures.
“It is very important for us to understand that the wood goes to its intended purpose and will not fall into the hands of the enemy. That is why we ask that all incoming requests be sent to us centrally – at the request of the command (Ministry of Defense), through the leadership of the region. This will make it possible to evenly distribute the wood among the relevant units and meet the needs of our defenders, ”Shchedrina said in a message on VKontakte.
On October 21, a soldier of the 200th brigade spoke about the problems with obtaining a tree in a video message that was distributed by Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels. He noted that due to problems with the supply of wood, a huge number of soldiers who were under fire on the front line without shelters would die.
“The leadership of the Belgorod region began some kind of bureaucratic rigmarole. Write a piece of paper, write permission, go to the authorities. We are trying to get these logs so that the boys make trenches and so on. We can’t contact anyone, the leadership of Belgorod is trying to drag this out, ”the military man says. “Now we’ll just put a bunch of boys, because we can’t get stupid logs, although we have enough forests in the country, it seems to me.”
Belgorod volunteers confirmed that the process of handing over the tree has changed. As the correspondent of The Insider in Belgorod reports, the coordinator of the group said in a volunteer chat that now logs can only be issued upon request from the command and after the signature of the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The rules for the transfer of logs were changed by the authorities after part of the Russian fortifications at the front during the counteroffensive in the Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk regions were occupied by soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Insider reported in July that Belgorod volunteers have been supplying the Russian military with logs since the beginning of the war. The tree is being transported to the occupied territories of Ukraine, where fortifications and firing positions are being built. The Russian military daily came from the territory of Ukraine on "Urals" and took away the logs. Formal approvals were required – only for felling the forest, but since only dead wood was cut, there was no problem in this. Volunteers agreed with local authorities, the felling was allowed by the governor.