After reports that Telegram was being slowed down in Russia, Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on February 11 that his Telegram channel had long been the main way to quickly deliver information to residents, especially information tied to their safety. He urged people to subscribe to his channel on MAX, where he has 121,000 followers, compared with 482,000 on Telegram. For a border region with more than 1.4 million residents in 2025, such a slowdown means not just inconvenience but a direct blow to the warning system.
The official alert tools used by residents proved ineffective. The Emergencies Ministry app sent notifications for the entire region, so people in Belgorod regularly received messages about strikes on villages dozens of kilometers away. Residents say that when only seconds are available to reach shelter, those seconds were spent figuring out whether the warning applied to them. SMS alerts were also often delayed: a Belgorod resident, Anastasia, said some messages arrived 19 and 49 minutes late, while others never arrived at all. The ministry said the delays were caused by network overload and by the fact that mobile operators begin mass texting only after confirmed information is received and the request is processed.
Telegram Channels Replaced a Formal System
Belgorod lies about 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, leaving very little time to react once missile activity is detected. According to Alexei, a Belgorod resident familiar with the issue through his work, in spring 2024 sirens often began sounding only 20 to 30 seconds before explosions, and the city still lacked a developed shelter network. Under those conditions, Telegram channels that warned residents faster than official structures appeared on the third or fourth day of heavy shelling.
“The Warning channel reported missile danger before the sirens started howling, and much earlier. It was a minute and a half to two minutes before impact,” Alexei said.
The first such channel was “PREDUPREZHDENIE | RO”, launched in March 2024. Based on the style of its posts, residents assumed its administrators were connected to the military. Its informal format allowed warnings to be published immediately after missiles were detected. Later, similar channels appeared to track drones in Belgorod, Shebekino, Valuyki, and other districts. Over time, their chats also became a way to quickly learn the consequences of strikes and the fate of relatives. For that reason, sources told the newspaper that slowing Telegram creates a double loss: it becomes harder both to learn about an incoming attack in time and to get information afterward.
Shelling and a Utilities Breakdown
The situation has been worsened by strikes on energy infrastructure. Blackouts intensified during the winter, and in January, according to Gladkov, 556,000 people were left without electricity. On February 14, authorities announced that homes in Belgorod connected to centralized heating would have no hot water for the rest of the heating season because the surviving infrastructure was overloaded. The governor said the damage after strikes was “very large and very serious.”
Residents say they have adapted with flashlights, gas stoves, and generators. But power disruptions have also caused other problems: fires from overloaded wiring, burst pipes, dangerous voltage surges, and elevators stopping with people inside. Authorities said there would be no compensation for household appliances damaged by power spikes because the region already faces major spending on housing repairs. At the same time, schools and kindergartens remain open for in-person classes, and heating centers have been set up across the city, including in government buildings and at the United Russia public support headquarters.