President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered his military to “drive out” Ukrainian troops who had crossed into Russian territory, as officials said more than 120,000 people had been evacuated from the fighting.
Kiev launched a surprise offensive in Russia’s western Kursk region last Tuesday, seizing more than two dozen settlements in the biggest cross-border assault on Russian soil since World War II.
“The enemy has a clear goal – to sow dissension, conflicts, intimidate people, destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society,” Putin said in a televised meeting with government officials.
“The main task of the Defense Ministry is, of course, to drive out the enemy from our territories,” he said.
About 121,000 people have fled the Kursk region since the fighting began, with at least 12 civilians killed and 121 others injured, regional governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin.
Kursk authorities announced on Monday that they were expanding their evacuation zone to include the Belovsky district, home to about 14,000 residents. The neighbouring Belgorod region also said it was evacuating its border district of Krasnoyaruzsky.
Smirnov said Ukraine had advanced at least 12 kilometres (seven miles) into the region and seized 28 towns and villages, and that the new front was 40 kilometres long.
A top Ukrainian official told AFP over the weekend that the operation was aimed at halting Russian troops and causing instability in the country as Russia has been making slow advances in the border region for several months.
Putin said Russia would respond by showing “unanimous support for all people in distress” and claimed the number of men volunteering to fight had increased.
He said, “The enemy will get a befitting reply.”
– ‘Maximum Damage’ –
The attack seemed to take the Kremlin by surprise. The Russian military deployed reserve troops, tanks, aviation, artillery and drones to prevent it.
But on Sunday he acknowledged that Ukraine had in some places penetrated up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) into Russian territory.
It said some forces were near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchi Kolodez, about 25 kilometres and 30 kilometres from the Russia-Ukraine border.
“The aim is to aggravate the enemy’s position, inflict maximum damage and destabilise the situation in Russia, as they are unable to defend their border,” a Ukrainian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Ukrainian official said thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were involved in the operation.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday its air defence systems had destroyed 18 Ukrainian drones – 11 of them in the Kursk region.
– ‘This is scary’ –
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said on Sunday that more than 44,000 residents of the Kursk region have applied for financial aid, news agency TASS reported.
Meanwhile, Russia’s rail operator has arranged emergency trains from Kursk to Moscow, around 450 kilometres away, for fleeing people.
“It’s scary to have helicopters flying over your head all the time,” said Marina, who arrived in Moscow by train on Sunday and declined to give her last name. “When it was possible to leave, I left.”
Across the border in Ukraine’s Sumy region, AFP journalists on Sunday saw dozens of armoured vehicles bearing white triangles – the insignia being used to identify Ukrainian military hardware deployed in the attack.
At an evacuation center in the regional capital Sumy, Mykola, a 70-year-old retired metallurgist who fled from his village of Khotyn, about 10 kilometers from the Russian border, welcomed Ukraine’s incursion into Russia.
“Let’s let them find out what it’s like. They don’t understand what war is. Let them get a taste of it,” he told AFP.
Analysts believe Kiev may have carried out the attack to ease pressure on its troops in other parts of the border region.
But the Ukrainian official added: “Their pressure in the east continues, they are not withdrawing troops from the region,” even though “the intensity of Russian attacks has decreased a bit”.
The Ukrainian official said he hoped Russia would “eventually” stop the incursions.
The official said Ukraine was preparing for a massive retaliatory missile strike, including against “decision-making centers” in Ukraine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
