Russia has evacuated 76,000 people from Kursk as Ukrainian forces continue to hold a swath of the Russian border region in a major blow to Vladimir Putin.
Fighting continued on Saturday around the small town of Sudzha, 80 miles south-west of Kursk city, as Moscow’s forces tried to repel the biggest attack on Russia since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The priority area of the operational headquarters’ work is the resettlement of residents of these areas to safe places,” said a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Ministry.
Russia’s FSB also imposed a “counter-terrorism operation” on Kursk and two neighbouring Russian regions, which strips away basic rights and deepens the security service’s grip over local infrastructure and society.
Kremlin officials also confirmed that a state of emergency has been declared in the Kursk region’s border area and evacuation buses have been sent from Moscow.
By Saturday evening, Russian military bloggers were reporting that Ukraine’s advance in the Kursk region had halted and that its soldiers were bringing up multiple rocket launcher systems and tanks to reinforce their positions.
The Two Majors Telegram channel reported that the town of Sudzha, which holds important Russian pipeline infrastructure, was now split between the two armies.
“The western outskirts are under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the central part of the city is in the grey zone, and the eastern part is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces,” it said.
Ukrainian forces have captured roughly 350 sq km of Russia since Tuesday in a surprise attack that has angered Putin, embarrassed the Russian military and shocked the Kremlin’s propaganda outlets.
The Kremlin has ordered its media to play down the Ukrainian attack.
Two people working for Russian state propaganda outlets told Meduza, a Russian opposition media news website, that the Kremlin had sent “urgent” instructions on how to report the Ukrainian incursion.
This included playing down talk of a “new front”, avoiding reporting on Ukrainian military successes and ignoring their potential advance towards the town of Kurchatov, home to the Kursk Nuclear Power station.
Newspaper stories focused on the endurance of ordinary Russians caught up in the fighting rather than military losses, but there were hints of disquiet in state publications.
“In general, the whole story of the breakthrough into the Kursk region resembles a psychological operation,” wrote the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, breaking its usual editorial policy of ignoring military defeats.
A columnist for its Moscow rival, Moskovskij Komsomolets, went further, describing the Ukrainian military as a “strong adversary” who had caught the Russian military off-guard.
“Everyone makes mistakes anyway. What matters is how these mistakes are corrected, how strong moves by the enemy are neutralised,” he said.
Even the Kremlin mouthpieces that dominate Russian TV appeared unnerved.
Military strategist, Mikhail Khodaryonok, pondered aloud on primetime TV “How could this happen? How?” and analyst Andrei Chadayev wrote on his Telegram channel that the Ukrainian attack had given the Russian military “a deafening slap in the face”.
Julia Davis, a US analyst who monitors Russian media, said that this level of panic was unusual.
“Even Russia’s state TV propagandists can’t hide their alarm at Ukraine’s remarkable cross-border incursion into Kursk,” she said.
By Saturday, Russian media was also reporting that the Kremlin was rushing tanks and soldiers from across Russia, including conscripts, to the Kursk border region to repel the Ukrainian attack.
The ‘People of Baikal’ newspaper in Irkutsk, Siberia, reported that relatives of several conscripts had been told that they were heading to Kursk after their three-month-long “fighter course”.
“They will go to the border territories to replace the conscripts from the autumn conscription,” the newspaper reported.
The deployment of conscripts into combat is controversial in Russia because conscription is seen by the Russian public as a rite of passage for young men, rather than a military commitment. Conscripts are legally only allowed to defend Russia and haven’t, officially at least, been sent into Ukraine.
On Friday Russian Telegram channels had speculated that the Kursk nuclear power station was Ukraine’s military objective after a drone attack hit the plant and knocked out the power supply for several hours.
This has now been discounted but Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called for “maximum restraint” to prevent a disaster at the nuclear plant.
Explosions rang out on Saturday night in the centre and east of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as Ukraine’s air force said two Russian missiles were headed towards the city.
Air raid sirens sounded in the capital and at least two flashes could be seen against the night sky, according to the AFP.
Kyiv’s military administration said in a post on Telegram that the city’s air defence systems had been activated. Ukraine’s air force said five other regions were being attacked by drones.
There has been growing concern among many Ukrainians in recent days that Moscow might launch air raids in response to Kyiv’s recent offensive inside Russian territory.
Ukrainian officials have not so far given any details on possible casualties or damage.
Ukraine has been regularly hit by deadly Russia air strikes from missiles and drones.
Kyiv has repeatedly called for its allies in the West to provide it with more air defence systems.