Kozinka, Belgorod Oblast

[citation needed] In 1896, in honor of the accession and marriage of Emperor Nicholas II, the village's inhabitants began the construction of a church in the name of John the Apostle.

[5] In May 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the governor of Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that Ukrainian "sabotage groups" entered Grayvoronsky District.

[6][7][8][9] In March 2024, during an incursion from Ukraine, the Siberian Battalion raised its flag in Kozinka, together with the Russian Volunteer Corps.

[10] On 20 March 2024, the Russian defence ministry claimed that pro-Kremlin forces had "fully cleared" Kozinka from the "militants", killing 650 of them with "air strikes and artillery fire."

German milblogger Julian Roepke assessed that the Russian military had air-dropped high-explosive FAB-500 bombs in its efforts.

The Church of John the Apostle in Kozinka is registered as a cultural heritage site by the Russian Ministry of Culture . Photo from 2014.
A map of the 2023 incursion into Belgorod Oblast by anti-Putin Russian militants on its first day, 22 May. Frontlines and control of settlements are approximate and based on both Russian and militant sources.
The church