As tens of thousands flee their homes in border region, many say government downplayed threat of invasion
The threat seemed unreal – Russian soil had not seen invading forces since the end of the second world war – and Russian state media initially dismissed the invasion as a one-off “attempt at infiltration”, so Antipova’s parents, who keep chickens and a pig on a small plot, decided to stay in Zaoleshenka.
By Friday, Ukraine’s military claimed to have dispatched about 10,000 troops to capture about 1,100sq km of the Kursk region, mostly around the town of Sudzha. If true, the incursion captured more territory than that seized by Russia in Ukraine this year, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
“Officials’ reports were not scary at all: ‘100 saboteurs went in’ – but then it went up to 300, 800 … It was impossible to get a clear picture,” he said. “We decided to leave only after we saw locals who had been evacuated from there and told us to go.”Many in Kursk blame the government and state media for keeping them in the dark in the face of mortal danger, with outraged residents sharing messages on social media.
Russia’s emergency officials eventually put the number of IDPs from Kursk at 76,000. Air raids have become routine in Kursk, a city of about a million people, with many locals ignoring the sirens or sheltering in safer spots, said Stas Volobuyev.But it was the influx of displaced Russians from the border areas that brought home the reality of war just a few dozen kilometres away.
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