Russians flee for Moscow amid Ukraine border attack: ‘it has to be stopped’

“It’s terrible. They are bombing,” an elderly man at the station said when asked about the border region, declining to give his name.

The Ukrainian army has been pressing into the Kursk region since Tuesday, in what appears to be its most serious offensive on Russian soil since the conflict began in 2022.

At a railway station in central Moscow, small huddles of families, including children and the elderly, stepped off a train from the city of Kursk, some carrying possessions in shopping bags.

Many of those arriving at Moscow’s Kievsky railway station were waiting for relatives to collect them.

An older woman who had travelled on a train with her teenage son sat on a bench on the platform, tearfully stroking her cat, Murka.

A photo released on Friday shows women and children being evacuated from the town of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region. Photo: Government of Kursk region via AFP

Authorities have organised additional trains out of the Kursk region to cope with the flow of evacuees, reported to number in the thousands.

The Kremlin has not given details on the extent of Ukraine’s advance in the region, or the situation on the ground.

But images from the town of Sudzha, the focus of Ukraine’s offensive, appeared to show destroyed buildings, debris strewn across the street and large craters in the ground from artillery.

One man said he had come to Moscow from Kurchatov, a town of around 40,000 people in the Kursk region some 50km (30 miles) from the fighting.

“The situation there is normal, but the air defences are working hard,” he said.

Ukraine’s surprise offensive into the region appears to have caught Russia off guard, with some analysts suggesting Kyiv hopes to divert Moscow’s resources and ease pressure on the front.

A Russian Su-25 aircraft fires rockets on Ukrainian forces at the Kursk border region of Russia. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry via AFP

Larisa, the 59-year-old manager of a dining car on one of the trains, said those fleeing the fighting needed financial support.

“Without money, how can you help people?” she asked.

“It has to be stopped somehow,” she said of the fighting.

Several Russian media outlets shared a video purporting to show residents from the Sudzha district appealing to President Vladimir Putin for help, warning that many were unable to evacuate.

Outside the railway station, 68-year-old Lyudmila from the southwestern city of Oryol said she was concerned Ukraine could attack other regions.

“That’s why Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], should probably take more decisive military action. Because I’m afraid whether we will be next,” she said.