Moscow shocked by the first foreign military incursion in Russia since 1945
The Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region has led to the largest evacuation of Russian civilians since the Second Chechen War. « Over there, on our own Russian soil, there is war… » Between astonishment and worry, on a train platform in Moscow, a lonely grandfather waits for his family. It is nearly 11 pm on Monday, August 12, when the crowded train arrives from Kursk, just 500 kilometers southwest of the capital. Nearly a week after the start of the surprise offensive by the Ukrainian army in this border region, Russian authorities announced the evacuation of 121,000 people from the combat zone, a record since the Second Chechen War (1999-2009). In Moscow’s train station, family reunions take place without much emotion. On the platform, no one wants to comment on the situation, especially since the reassuring messages on Kremlin-controlled television contradict the alarming reports on social media.
« The enemy will receive an appropriate response. All the objectives we face will undoubtedly be achieved, » promised Vladimir Putin on Monday evening during a partially televised meeting with his military chiefs. Around the Kremlin leader, who ordered his army to « expel » the « enemy » troops from Kursk and accused the West of « fighting us with the hands of Ukrainians, » faces are tense. The facts are undeniable, difficult to hide from the public, widely shared on social media: 28 localities have come under the control of Ukrainian forces, who have advanced 12 kilometers in depth and over 40 kilometers in width, coldly reported the interim governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov. This is the largest offensive by a foreign army on Russian soil since… World War II. At least twelve civilians have been killed and 121 injured, including ten children, continued the governor. « We do not know the fate of about 2,000 people in these areas. As of today, 121,000 people have already left or been evacuated. » Viatcheslav Gladkov, his counterpart in the neighboring Belgorod region, a regular target for Ukrainians for months before their surprise attack on the Kursk region, also announced preventive evacuations of populations due to « enemy activity at the border » on Monday.
In total, in recent hours, nearly 195,000 people were to be evacuated. The last time Russian populations fled en masse from combat within the country was during the Second Chechen War. At that time, there was no coordinated evacuation, with refugees fleeing the fighting on their own. Today, in the Kursk region, authorities claim to be organizing evacuations. But initial reports from the Russian press reveal that, due to a lack of centralized information and sufficient coordination on the ground, many families actually have to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, in Moscow and the regions, voluntary initiatives are being set up to collect aid to send to Kursk, the main city in the oblast that has not been taken by the Ukrainians.
