President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops on Monday (12/8) to “drive out” Ukrainian troops who had entered Russian territory, while Russian authorities said more than 120,000 people had been evacuated from the fighting.
Kyiv launched a surprise attack on Russia's western Kursk region on Tuesday (August 6), capturing more than two dozen settlements in the most significant cross-border offensive on Russian soil since World War II.
“One of the clear goals of the enemies is to sow discord, strife, intimidate society, destroy the unity and integrity of Russian society,” Putin said in a televised meeting with government officials.
“The main task of the defense ministry is to expel the enemy from our territory,” he said.
Some 121,000 people have fled the Kursk region since the start of the fighting, which has killed at least 12 civilians and wounded 121 others, Kursk governor Alexei Smirnov said in a meeting with Putin.
Authorities in Kursk announced Monday that they were expanding their evacuation area to include the Belovsky district, which has a population of about 14,000. Neighboring Belgorod region also said it was evacuating its border district, Krasnoyaruzhsky.
Ukraine has advanced at least 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the region and has captured 28 towns and villages, with the new front line 40 kilometers long, Smirnov said.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP over the weekend that the operation was aimed at weakening Russian forces and destabilising the country after months of slowing Russian advances on the front lines.
Putin said Russia would respond by showing “full support for all those in trouble” and claimed there had been an increase in the number of soldiers signing up to fight.
“The enemy will receive a befitting reply,” he said.
Maximum loss
The attack appeared to have caught the Kremlin off guard, with the Russian military rushing to deploy reserves, tanks, aviation, artillery and drones to thwart the attack.
However, on Sunday (11/8), Russia admitted that Ukraine had penetrated up to 30 kilometers into Russian territory.
It said that a number of Ukrainian troops were near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, about 25 kilometers and 30 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border.
A Ukrainian security official told AFP news agency, on condition of anonymity, that “the goal is to stretch the enemy's positions, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilize the situation in Russia because they cannot protect their own borders.”
The Ukrainian official said that thousands of Ukrainian troops were involved in the operation.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday that its air defense systems had destroyed 18 Ukrainian drones – including 11 in the Kursk region.
Tense situation
Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said on Sunday that more than 44,000 residents of the Kursk region had applied for financial assistance, TASS news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Russian rail operators have arranged emergency trains from Kursk to Moscow, some 450 kilometers away, for those fleeing.
“It's scary to have helicopters flying over your head all the time,” said Marina, who declined to give her last name, who arrived by train in Moscow on Sunday. “When the opportunity arose to leave, I left.”
Across the border in Ukraine's Sumy region, AFP journalists on Sunday saw dozens of armoured vehicles emblazoned with white triangles – an emblem apparently used to identify Ukrainian military hardware used in the attack.
At an evacuation center in the regional capital Sumy, 70-year-old retired metalworker Mykola, who fled his village of Khotyn, about 10 kilometers from the Russian border, welcomed Ukraine's move to join Russia.
“Let them know what it feels like,” he told AFP. “They don't understand what war is. Let them feel it.”
Analysts think Kyiv may have launched the offensive to relieve pressure on its troops on other parts of the front line.
However, Ukrainian officials said: “Their pressure in the east continues, they are not withdrawing troops from the area,” even if “the intensity of Russian attacks has decreased a little.”
The Ukrainian official said he expected Russia to “eventually” stop its attacks.
Ukraine is bracing for a large-scale retaliatory missile attack, including “on decision-making centers” in Ukraine, the official said. i
