Two Russian regions bordering Ukraine ordered more evacuations yesterday as Moscow battled to contain an unprecedented push onto its territory.
Ukraine sent troops into Russia last week in its biggest cross-border operation since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022 and the most significant by a foreign army since World War II.
Authorities in the Kursk region announced they were widening their evacuation area to include Belovsky district, home to some 14,000 people. The neighbouring Belgorod region said it was evacuating its border district of Krasnoyaruzhsky.
“For the health and security of our population, we’re beginning to move people who live in Krasnoyaruzhsky to safer places,” Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
The assault on Kursk had killed at least 12 civilians and already led to 121,000 people being ordered out. President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops.
Meanwhile, each country blamed the other for a fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine later on Sunday. Both sides — and the UN’s nuclear watchdog — said there was no sign of a nuclear leak.
