Ukrainian volunteers evacuated dozens of residents, and their pets, from northern Sumy region in anticipation of more Russian attacks in response to Ukraine’s cross-border military incursion into the Kursk region.
The residents trundled toward the pick-up point, their overflowing carrier bags loaded on to carts, as Russian forces intensified aerial guided bomb attacks.
Svitlana Linova, pushing her bicycle with her cat Murchik in its carrier, was in no doubt it was time to go.
"There was such heavy shelling yesterday from the other side of the border," she said. "The lamp and ceiling started to fall."
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She said she had untied her neighbours' dogs and let them go free when it became apparent they would not be returning anytime soon.
Sumy governor Volodymyr Artiukh ordered the evacuation of 28 villages within a 10km zone along the border. National police said on Friday that 20,000 would have to leave.
Evacuee Serhiy Kozak said residents of the eight houses making up his village of Basivka had seen enough of war, launched when the Kremlin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
"Some houses have been hit twice, others three times," he said. "There was another hit around this in the morning and I jumped out. And just before four, another hit. Panes of glass shattered. What else is there to say?"
Mr Kozak said the latest attacks involved planes flying in over the border from Kursk region. “They dropped a load of ammunition at Basivka, diverted and left. The same with helicopters, they fly over the border and start shelling.”
The evacuees, many relying on canes for support, were helped into mini-vans by volunteers in bullet-proof vests and taken to reception centres outside the danger zone. Pets were hoisted in alongside them, one dog stuffed into a small carrier bag.
Ukrainian officials have remained largely silent about the incursion into Kursk region, but unofficial reports from both sides note that four days into the operation they are advancing.
Volunteer Vlad Polyansky from the group SOS East, said 24 people were picked up and transported throughout the day on Friday.
“With the operation going on in Kursk region, hardly anyone would think that Moscow is going to like this,” he said. “We expect the shelling of border areas to get worse.”
The evacuations come as Russia moved extra tanks, artillery and rocket systems to its Kursk region and imposed anti-terrorism measures in border areas as it battles a shock incursion by Ukraine’s military.
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, posted a video purporting to show them in control of a town near the border, the first pictorial evidence of their cross-border advances.
In new evidence of the damage inflicted in the Ukrainian counter-offensive, another video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed a convoy of about 15 burnt-out Russian military trucks spaced out along a highway in the Kursk region. Some contained dead bodies.
The acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said drone debris had fallen on a power substation near Kurchatov, site of one of Russia’s largest nuclear power stations with four reactors. Power to the area was cut for a time.
The head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency urged both sides to show restraint in view of the proximity of the conflict to the station, 60 km from the border.
Russian diplomats in Vienna told the IAEA that fragments, possibly from downed missiles, had been found, though there was no evidence of an attack on the station.
Ukrainian forces broke across the border on Tuesday in a thrust that caught the Russian military by surprise after months of gradual advances in eastern Ukraine by Moscow’s forces.
Politicians and the military are referring to a Ukrainian “invasion”, nearly 2½ years after Russia launched its own full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Early on Saturday, Russian news agencies said the National Anti-Terrorism Committee had imposed anti-terror measures in Kursk region and in nearby Bryansk and Belgorod regions.
The statement said the decision, taken by Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB intelligence service, was in response to Ukraine’s “unprecedented attempt to destablise the situation in a series of regions”.
RIA news agency said the measures included possible displacement of residents, limits on transport, beefed-up security around sensitive sites and wire taps.
Two days after military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin that the advance had been halted, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces “continue to repel an attempted invasion by the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying that Russia was sending in columns of reinforcements with Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, artillery and tanks.
The Ukrainian video purported to show Ukrainian forces in control of a gas measuring facility run by Russian concern Gazprom in the town of Sudzha.
“The town is controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the town is calm, all buildings are intact,” a soldier in the video said, adding that the “strategic Gazprom facility” was under the control of a Ukrainian battalion.
Reuters could not verify this video and the Ukrainian military’s General Staff made no comment. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has maintained a strict silence on the operation, though he dropped some clear hints on Thursday, without referring to Kursk.
He praised his army’s ability “to surprise”. And in his nightly video address, he thanked army units who had taken Russian servicemen prisoner, to be used in later negotiations.
“This is extremely important and has been particularly effective over the past three days,” he said.
The United States announced a new $125 million (€114 million) package of aid for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles, artillery ammunition, and anti-armour systems. Zelenskiy said the package was “vital for our forces to counter Russian assaults”.
Russia’s defence ministry released its own video which it said showed a drone destroying a Ukrainian tank and howitzer near Sudzha. Reuters was able to verify the location.
The ministry said that in the previous 24 hours, Russian troops, air strikes and artillery had “suppressed raid attempts by enemy units deep into Russian territory in the Kursk direction”.
It said that Ukraine had lost up to 945 soldiers and 102 armoured vehicles in total, while mentioning no Russian losses.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts. On Wednesday, Gerasimov had said the Ukrainian attack was mounted by up to 1,000 troops.
The Institute for the Study of War said in an overnight report that geolocated footage and Russian accounts indicated that Ukrainian forces had “continued rapid advances”.
There were unconfirmed reports from Russian sources of Ukrainians pushing as deep as 35km the border. – Reuters