Russia said it evacuated more than 76,000 people from its western Kursk border region on Saturday, according to the state-run TASS news agency, as Ukraine pressed on with its biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began almost two and a half years ago.
In response to the incursion, Russia launched a military operation and sent additional troops, equipment and aviation unites to try to stop Ukrainian troops from advancing.
Struggling to put down a major Ukrainian incursion for a fifth day, Russia on Saturday said it had evacuated tens of thousands of people from its border region, launched a “counter-terror operation” and warned that the fighting was endangering a nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian units stormed into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack, the largest and most successful cross-border offensive by Kyiv of the two-and-a-half year conflict.
Kyiv has maintained a strict operational silence on the offensive and is yet publicly to confirm it is even behind the attack.
Russia’s nuclear agency on Saturday warned of a “direct threat” to the nearby Kursk nuclear power station, and local officials detailed the scale of civilian evacuations from towns and villages close to the combat zone.
“More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted an official from the regional emergency situations ministry as saying at a press briefing on Saturday.
