Russia began evacuating thousands more people from its border regions on Thursday after Ukraine said it was advancing deeper into the country in a lightning incursion aimed at forcing Moscow to slow its advance along the rest of the front.
The biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two unfurled on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops smashed through Russia's Western border in an embarrassment for the Russian top military brass.
Supported by swarms of drones, heavy artillery and tanks, Ukrainian units have since carved out a sliver of the world's biggest nuclear power and battles were ongoing along a front about 18 km (11 miles) inside Russian territory on Thursday.
Kursk's acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said that the Glushkov district, which has a population of 20,000, was being evacuated. At least 200,000 people have so far been evacuated from the border regions, according to Russian data.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that his forces had advanced a few kilometers and that the goal of replenishing an 'exchange fund' of prisoners of war was being achieved. One Ukrainian official said Kyiv was carving out a buffer zone to protect its population against attack.
Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that its forces had shot down Ukrainian drones over the neighbouring Belgorod region of Russia and that Sukhoi-34 bombers had pummeled Ukrainian positions in Kursk.
Russia's defence ministry also reported intense battles along the Ukraine front, and said that its troops had taken better positions at several points.
While the Ukrainian attack has embarrassed Moscow, revealed the weakness of its border defences and changed the public narrative of the war, Russian officials said what they cast as a Ukrainian "invasion" would not change the course of the war.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has been advancing for most of the year along the 1000-km (620-mile) front in Ukraine for much of the year and has a vast numerical superiority. It controls 18% of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian incursion into Russia has yielded its biggest battlefield gains since 2022.
FIGHTING IN RUSSIA
The West, which backs Ukraine and has said it will not allow President Vladimir Putin to win the war, has repeatedly said it knew nothing of the Ukrainian plans to attack Russia. Russian officials say they do not believe such statements.
"Of course they are involved," Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters. "When I studied in the United States the main rule was: 'Don't poke the bear'. What the West is doing today? They are poking the bear."
Putin said on Monday that Ukraine "with the help of its Western masters" was aiming to improve Kyiv's negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks.
Russian officials have warned that if Western weapons were used on Russian territory, then Moscow would consider that a grave escalation.
Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya's Akhmat special forces, said that 12,000 Ukrainian troops had crossed into Russia. Alaudinov said the Ukrainian forces would be ejected.
By bringing the war to Russia, Zelenskiy faces the risk of weakening Kyiv's defences along the front in Ukraine while Russia has already sent in thousands of reserves in a bid to expel the Ukrainian soldiers.
And if Ukraine wants to hold the Russian territory it has taken, it will need to build a sophisticated logistics operation to support its forces, military analysts said.
