(Moscow) Visibly disoriented, dozens of people got off one of the first trains in Moscow taking evacuees from the Kursk region, the scene of a major incursion by the Ukrainian army for four days, to the Russian capital.
Among those arriving at the station, which ironically bears the name of the Ukrainian capital – Kyiv Railway Station – there are many families with children, elderly people. Many of them seem to be in Moscow for the first time.
“It’s terrible, they’re bombing,” said an elderly man carrying a small travel bag, without giving his name, about the situation there.
Another, who also did not wish to identify himself, said he came from Kurchatov, about fifty kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Although the fighting has not yet reached this town of about 40,000 inhabitants, “the anti-aircraft defenses are working hard” to repel the Ukrainian bombardments, he said.
“The war came, so all our relatives left for Moscow because it’s very scary,” a woman who came to greet her family with her ten-year-old daughter told reporters.
The train is one of those chartered by the authorities to evacuate residents of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian troops invaded on Tuesday, pushing forward for several dozen kilometers.
Four days later, fighting was still taking place there, with Russian forces struggling to repel this assault of unprecedented scale.
According to Russian authorities, Ukrainian shelling has left five dead and 66 injured in the border region. And nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated, its governor announced.
“The next ones”
At the Kyiv Railway Station, evacuees ask passers-by where the exit is.
A woman in her fifties who took the train with her teenage son sits on a bench on the platform, tearfully stroking her cat Mourka, whom she brought with her.
Muscovites interviewed by AFP nearby say they are ready to help the displaced financially. “That’s what people are missing, I guess,” said Larissa, 59, who runs a dining car.
“One way or another, I think we have to stop this. There should be no war,” she adds.
“The president is already doing everything possible” to help these victims, said Lioubov, 43.
Vladimir Putin appeared visibly angry on television on Tuesday as he listened to the army’s report.
Lioudmila, 68, would like the head of state to take “more decisive military measures” to repel the incursion.
She herself comes from Orel, about 140 km north of the city of Kursk.
“I’m afraid we’re next. Now it’s Kursk. After Kursk, you know, Orel,” she says.
While Russian border regions, particularly Belgorod, have already been the target of ground assaults by fighters from Ukraine and are frequently targeted by Ukrainian bombings, the operation launched on Tuesday is exceptional in its power and duration.
The Russian military confirmed that Ukrainian troops had reached Sudja, a town of 5,500 people about ten kilometers from the border.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Friday that it was deploying more resources to help people in the Kursk region evacuate to safe territories.
For its part, the army announced that it was sending reinforcements to repel the Ukrainian units.