Kursk residents tell Putin he’s lying about Ukraine attack

“These lies allow residents to die. The Chief of the General Staff recently said the situation is under control,” one resident said in the video, according to a CNN translation.

“But today, huge furious fighting is taking place in Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts,” she said.

The clip was broadcast on the Russian Telegram channel Native Sudzha, which covers news from the region.

Residents said they were left homeless by Ukraine’s attack and said they had to rely on news from Telegram channels instead of local officials.

Many said they were unable to bring their travel documents or identification with them because of how quickly they had to evacuate, and said authorities should have known Ukraine was building up its forces at the border.

“We are left alone with children with nowhere to go, no compensation, no money. We escaped with only the clothes on our backs,” said one woman, according to the CNN translation.

One man spoke directly to Putin, claiming that the people of Guevo, a town in Sudzha, were not evacuated by officials and were stuck in the middle of the fighting.

According to open source information, Guevo is one of over ten Russian villages now under Ukrainian control.

The Russian Defense Ministry and the press team for Putin’s office did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s after-hours requests for comment.

Ukrainian troops push into Kursk

Forces in Kiev launched an incursion into Kursk on Wednesday, with some Ukrainian armored vehicles seen fighting up to nine miles deep into Russian territory.

Russia said Ukraine launched the attack with about 1,000 troops and about 40 armored vehicles, including tanks. The Kremlin called the attack a “large-scale provocation”.

About 80 miles to the southeast, Russia launched a similar operation in May by moving its troops into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, opening a new war front.

Ukraine has said little about its attack on Russia, although an adviser to the president’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, acknowledged the Ukrainian push in statements on social media on Thursday.

“Now, a significant part of the global community considers RF a legitimate target for any operations and types of weapons,” Podolyak wrote on X, referring to the Russian armed forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his speech on Thursday that Russia “should feel what it has done” to Ukraine, but did not directly mention the incursion.

In a Wednesday meeting called by Putin, Russian military chief Valery Gerasimov reported that the Ukrainian advance had been halted, claiming that Kiev’s forces had suffered heavy losses.

The situation is “under control,” Kursk’s acting governor, Alexey Smirnov, said in a Telegram statement. He urged residents not to panic.

But Russian sources and footage of the Kursk charges show that fighting is still fierce.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, located geolocated Ukrainian units that overran Russian defensive lines in at least two areas.

“The sky is completely dominated by Ukrainian drones,” military blogger VChK-OPGU, known to have ties to the Russian military, wrote on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Putin announced a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles, or $115, in aid to Kursk residents affected by the attack, according to state media.