Digest of Russian media
Ukraine’s Incursion into Kursk Through the Eyes of Locals
August 21, 2024
On the morning of August 6, the Ukrainian army launched a full-scale offensive in Russia’s Kursk Region, quickly taking control of several villages. Less than a week later, on August 12, the acting Kursk Region governor, Alexei Smirnov, informed Vladimir Putin that 28 settlements were controlled by the Ukrainian army and that approximately 180,000 people would need to be evacuated. About two weeks after Ukrainian troops crossed the border, on August 19, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 1,250 square kilometers and 92 settlements in Kursk Region were under Ukrainian control.
By that time, according to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, the number of people evacuated from the region had reached more than 121,000. Temporary accommodation centers across 24 regions of Russia are now hosting refugees.
The head of Korenevsky District of Kursk Region, Marina Degtyareva, called on refugees not to go back to their homes, because it sometimes “results in terrible tragedies.”
One of the regions actively accepting Kursk refugees is Kostroma. The director of the region’s labor and social security agency, Ekaterina Vasilkova, told government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta that they had previously accepted refugees from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, then from Belgorod, and “now… from Kursk.” The refugees themselves say they are treated well.
“We were in our garden with my husband and saw Nazis with automatic rifles walking under our windows. We ran through the gardens, walked 20 kilometers on foot, with drones flying over us. Thanks to the volunteers, they met us and put us on buses. No matter what, we will not give up. Victory will be ours,” one of the refugees is quoted as saying by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
In one of the volunteer hospitals that receives victims from Kursk, doctors say that people did not evacuate soon enough, the daily Kommersant reports.
“Brother, I don’t really like journalists. Because you created such a situation on TV: ‘everything is great in Kursk Region, it’s not bad, we’re going to win!’ People believed it and stayed at home,” one volunteer told Kommersant.
Sudzha, the largest town captured by the Ukrainians, has a population of around 5,000. In the early days of the incursion, a reporter from Kommersant attempted to reach the town but found the road “deadly dangerous because of Ukrainian drones.” Residents said air raid sirens frequently sounded in the city and explosions could be heard, while the situation has since become much more serious.
“We left Sudzha in our car on August 6 with nothing but the clothes on our backs,” one of the Sudzha residents told the Kommersant reporter. “At that point, it was still relatively calm – sure, there were cars burning on the highway, but overall we managed to get through more or less fine. But what are we supposed to do now? We thought this would end quickly, so we left with nothing. Now we’re living at a friend’s place – 12 people in one apartment.”
Kommersant reported that Sudzha refugees at a volunteer aid center were complaining about the lack of government support. They said there was no organized evacuation, and they had to escape the city on their own during the shelling, without any help or information.
“We also don’t understand why we aren’t being told the truth. The enemy has crossed into our territory, and on TV they keep saying: ‘This is an emergency incident.’ What kind of incident is it when enemy tanks are on our land? This is already a real war!” a Sudzha refugee told Kommersant.
Putin has announced a one-time payment of RUB 10,000 ($111) to residents of Kursk Region who had to leave their homes because of the Ukrainian advance. The region’s official minimum subsistence level is RUB 13,271 ($148) per month. Meanwhile, Governor Smirnov posted on his Telegram channel that evacuated residents would be housed in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Residents say that escape was possible at the start of the offensive but soon became nearly impossible. Artem Kuznetsov, from Sudzha, told the weekly Argumenty i Fakty on August 7 that he came under fire while on the highway.
“I heard gunfire – the sound was quiet, like if someone was shooting from an air gun rather than a Kalashnikov. I looked up and thought our soldiers were taking down a drone. That’s a usual thing for us. Then I realized they were shooting at me. One of the bullets went through the windshield at an angle and exited through the dashboard,” Kuznetsov recounted the experience.
Kuznetsov survived, but his 24-year-old wife, traveling in a car just behind him, was killed. He mentioned that she was two months pregnant.
The global Russian-language media outlet RTVI interviewed a family from a town near Sudzha that did not manage to leave before shelling started. They said that Ukrainian soldiers came to their house.
“They said, ‘we won’t touch you. Stay calm, stay in the basement, don’t stick your head out.’ And then they left. We asked if we should close the door. They said, ‘yes, close the door and don’t stick your head out,’” they told RTVI.
The family added that Ukrainian soldiers asked to record videos with them.
“They said that we should now say on camera that we are being bombed by the Russians, that we are staying in the basement, and that they [Ukrainian soldiers] are protecting us. My husband started saying, ‘we’ve been sitting in the basement for three days, the Ukrainian army came, and they haven’t touched us,’” they said.
On August 8, the soldiers allowed the family to leave the town.
“I asked if we could leave. I thought there was no other option. They [the Ukrainian soldiers] said, ‘well, if you want to leave, go ahead.’ I asked whether there would be problems for us. They said, ‘no. I’ll radio to make sure they don’t bother you at the beginning of the street,’” the refugees told RTVI.
They added that the Ukrainian soldier “impressed” them with his “humanity.”
The family reached the city of Kursk and plans to move even farther from the border. They are still having a hard time processing what happened.
“I look at life in [the city of] Kursk. Music is playing, people are out. It’s not just that. It’s that people don’t know what might happen in the next moment. We lived like that too, biding our time. Like fools. We’ve been living like this for two years now. An explosion here, an explosion there. We’ve got used to it. Instead of packing up and leaving, we stayed until the last minute,” RTVI quotes the refugees.
Many people cannot reach their relatives who remain in areas along the Ukraine-Kursk Region border. One reader of the independent Russian news outlet Meduza said that she is searching for her family and is now hoping the Russian army can regain control of the region.
“I’ve always been against the war, supported the Ukrainians, and disliked supporters of the war. But fate is such that now I follow all the voenkory [war correspondents] and am waiting for the Ukrainian army to be driven out of my home. I haven’t changed my views; I still blame Putin. But now I hope for the success of those I once hated,” Meduza quoted its reader as saying.
By that time, according to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, the number of people evacuated from the region had reached more than 121,000. Temporary accommodation centers across 24 regions of Russia are now hosting refugees.
The head of Korenevsky District of Kursk Region, Marina Degtyareva, called on refugees not to go back to their homes, because it sometimes “results in terrible tragedies.”
One of the regions actively accepting Kursk refugees is Kostroma. The director of the region’s labor and social security agency, Ekaterina Vasilkova, told government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta that they had previously accepted refugees from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, then from Belgorod, and “now… from Kursk.” The refugees themselves say they are treated well.
“We were in our garden with my husband and saw Nazis with automatic rifles walking under our windows. We ran through the gardens, walked 20 kilometers on foot, with drones flying over us. Thanks to the volunteers, they met us and put us on buses. No matter what, we will not give up. Victory will be ours,” one of the refugees is quoted as saying by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
In one of the volunteer hospitals that receives victims from Kursk, doctors say that people did not evacuate soon enough, the daily Kommersant reports.
“Brother, I don’t really like journalists. Because you created such a situation on TV: ‘everything is great in Kursk Region, it’s not bad, we’re going to win!’ People believed it and stayed at home,” one volunteer told Kommersant.
Sudzha, the largest town captured by the Ukrainians, has a population of around 5,000. In the early days of the incursion, a reporter from Kommersant attempted to reach the town but found the road “deadly dangerous because of Ukrainian drones.” Residents said air raid sirens frequently sounded in the city and explosions could be heard, while the situation has since become much more serious.
“We left Sudzha in our car on August 6 with nothing but the clothes on our backs,” one of the Sudzha residents told the Kommersant reporter. “At that point, it was still relatively calm – sure, there were cars burning on the highway, but overall we managed to get through more or less fine. But what are we supposed to do now? We thought this would end quickly, so we left with nothing. Now we’re living at a friend’s place – 12 people in one apartment.”
Kommersant reported that Sudzha refugees at a volunteer aid center were complaining about the lack of government support. They said there was no organized evacuation, and they had to escape the city on their own during the shelling, without any help or information.
“We also don’t understand why we aren’t being told the truth. The enemy has crossed into our territory, and on TV they keep saying: ‘This is an emergency incident.’ What kind of incident is it when enemy tanks are on our land? This is already a real war!” a Sudzha refugee told Kommersant.
Putin has announced a one-time payment of RUB 10,000 ($111) to residents of Kursk Region who had to leave their homes because of the Ukrainian advance. The region’s official minimum subsistence level is RUB 13,271 ($148) per month. Meanwhile, Governor Smirnov posted on his Telegram channel that evacuated residents would be housed in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Residents say that escape was possible at the start of the offensive but soon became nearly impossible. Artem Kuznetsov, from Sudzha, told the weekly Argumenty i Fakty on August 7 that he came under fire while on the highway.
“I heard gunfire – the sound was quiet, like if someone was shooting from an air gun rather than a Kalashnikov. I looked up and thought our soldiers were taking down a drone. That’s a usual thing for us. Then I realized they were shooting at me. One of the bullets went through the windshield at an angle and exited through the dashboard,” Kuznetsov recounted the experience.
Kuznetsov survived, but his 24-year-old wife, traveling in a car just behind him, was killed. He mentioned that she was two months pregnant.
The global Russian-language media outlet RTVI interviewed a family from a town near Sudzha that did not manage to leave before shelling started. They said that Ukrainian soldiers came to their house.
“They said, ‘we won’t touch you. Stay calm, stay in the basement, don’t stick your head out.’ And then they left. We asked if we should close the door. They said, ‘yes, close the door and don’t stick your head out,’” they told RTVI.
The family added that Ukrainian soldiers asked to record videos with them.
“They said that we should now say on camera that we are being bombed by the Russians, that we are staying in the basement, and that they [Ukrainian soldiers] are protecting us. My husband started saying, ‘we’ve been sitting in the basement for three days, the Ukrainian army came, and they haven’t touched us,’” they said.
On August 8, the soldiers allowed the family to leave the town.
“I asked if we could leave. I thought there was no other option. They [the Ukrainian soldiers] said, ‘well, if you want to leave, go ahead.’ I asked whether there would be problems for us. They said, ‘no. I’ll radio to make sure they don’t bother you at the beginning of the street,’” the refugees told RTVI.
They added that the Ukrainian soldier “impressed” them with his “humanity.”
The family reached the city of Kursk and plans to move even farther from the border. They are still having a hard time processing what happened.
“I look at life in [the city of] Kursk. Music is playing, people are out. It’s not just that. It’s that people don’t know what might happen in the next moment. We lived like that too, biding our time. Like fools. We’ve been living like this for two years now. An explosion here, an explosion there. We’ve got used to it. Instead of packing up and leaving, we stayed until the last minute,” RTVI quotes the refugees.
Many people cannot reach their relatives who remain in areas along the Ukraine-Kursk Region border. One reader of the independent Russian news outlet Meduza said that she is searching for her family and is now hoping the Russian army can regain control of the region.
“I’ve always been against the war, supported the Ukrainians, and disliked supporters of the war. But fate is such that now I follow all the voenkory [war correspondents] and am waiting for the Ukrainian army to be driven out of my home. I haven’t changed my views; I still blame Putin. But now I hope for the success of those I once hated,” Meduza quoted its reader as saying.
Sofia Sorochinskaia
Russia.Post
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