Russian border region’s acting governor says his constituents want one thing more than anything: for the ‘special military operation’ to end

Source: Kommersant

The acting governor of the Belgorod region, Alexander Shuvaev, said residents there want the war in Ukraine to end more than anything else. He made the remarks in an interview with Kommersant, a Russian business daily.

Asked what residents of the region want most at the moment, he said:

For the special military operation to end, so everybody — whoever they are — can get on with their lives and things in the region can get better. That is what matters most. There’s no way forward otherwise.

As of late June 2026, searches for “when will the SVO end” on Yandex had reached their highest point since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the week of June 22–28, users submitted more than 137,000 such queries. Nearly 13% of June’s searches came from Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Herman Gref, the head of Sberbank, also said recently that Russians want the war to end. “What worries us — I think we all share the same worry,” Gref said. “I don’t think there is a person in this country whose concerns are anything other than the earliest possible end to the fighting. That is obvious.”

Shuvaev, 45, served as deputy governor of the Irkutsk region before President Vladimir Putin appointed him acting governor of Belgorod in May, succeeding Vyacheslav Gladkov, who had led the region since 2021. A major general and decorated combat commander, Shuvaev fought in the war in Ukraine before entering regional government.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Russian border region’s acting governor says his constituents want one thing more than anything: for the ‘special military operation’ to end

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Russian border region’s acting governor says his constituents want one thing more than anything: for the ‘special military operation’ to end

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