Kozinka (russian: Кози́нка) is a rural locality (a selo) and the administrative center of Kozinskoye Rural Settlement,

Grayvoronsky District Grayvoronsky District (russian: Грайворо́нский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the twenty-one in Belgorod Oblast, Russia.Law #248 Municipally, it is incorporated as Grayvoronsky Municipal District.Law #15 ...

, Belgorod Oblast, Russia. The population was 1,097 as of 2010. In 2023, the village was attacked and briefly occupied by pro-Ukrainian forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the March 2024 western Russia incursion, Kozinka was practically destroyed by Russian bombing.

Geography

Kozinka is located 12 km southwest of Grayvoron (the district's administrative centre) by road. Glotovo is the nearest rural locality.

History

A historical source testifies that the year 1663 is listed as the date of foundation of the settlement Verbovoye. Later, the Cherkasy (

Little Russians Little Russia (russian: Малороссия/Малая Россия, Malaya Rossiya/Malorossiya; uk, Малоросія/Мала Росія, Malorosiia/Mala Rosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (russian: Малая Ру� ...

) who arrived and settled there renamed the village Kozinka. According to archaeological finds, the village has a more ancient history, as evidenced by the arrowheads found in the left-bank part of the village, belonging to the Scythian culture. 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.

2023–24 incursions

In May 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the governor of Belgorod Oblast,

Vyacheslav Gladkov Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Gladkov (russian: Вячеслав Владимирович Гладков; born 15 January 1969) is a Russian statesman and politician. He became the governor of the Belgorod Region on 27 September 2021, after serving a ...

, said that Ukrainian "sabotage groups" entered

. Ukrainian media reported that the cross-border excursion was by Russian rebel opposition groups, the

Russian Volunteer Corps The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK ; russian: Русский добровольческий корпус, Russkiy dobrovol'cheskiy korpus) is a unit of the Territorial Defense of Ukraine formed in August 2022 from Russian right-wing volunteers who ...

and the

Freedom of Russia Legion uk, Легіон «Свобода Росії» , image = Patch of the Ukrainian Free Russian Legion.svg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Patch, co ...

. The militants claimed to have captured the villages of Kozinka and Gora-Podol. They were later forced out of the villages. In March 2024, during an incursion from Ukraine, the Siberian Battalion raised its flag in Kozinka, together with the Russian Volunteer Corps. 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. Kozinka was practically destroyed by Russian bombing. According to a villager, "There is not a single whole house left" in Kozinka.

References

{{Authority control Rural localities in Grayvoronsky District Volchansky Uezd