06:45The residents of the Russia-Ukraine border region of Kursk sheltering in a temporary accommodation centre described their evacuation on Sunday amid Kiev's incursion into Russian territory.
A couple from Makhovka village decided to wait out the first heavy shelling at their son's house in a neighbouring district, but soon it was also attacked.
"We stayed the night there. Everything was quiet. And the following day, bursts of gunfire.<...> There were seven cars. And we drove about 30 kilometres into the woods and spent the night there," Nadezhda Lisikhina explained.
Her husband Nikolai added that they headed further east to the town of Lgov.
"There were damaged cars on both sides [of the road], at least a dozen. <...> A man lying on the ground. People left their cars there as they parked them outside the shop," the witness said.
Another resident Alexander Bogomolov said that he came under fire while being evacuated.
"I saw our guys. They said 'Alexander, we've come to get you'. I grabbed the bags, got in the car, and we drove off. We met two more residents, two women, on the way. We took them too. <...> At that moment, just five minutes after we arrived, the ground trembled, the bridge was hit," he explained.
An evacuee Tatiana Prikhodko moved further from the border to her daughter’s house after the strikes began, however later the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) officers advised her to leave the area.
"The windows in my house were blown out, and the fence, and basement - everything was destroyed. Sure thing. They hit methodically - boom, and it flies. Again boom, you listen to its howl, trying to understand where it falls. I only prayed to God I wouldn't get hit. There's a gully, trees all around, I went down there with the dogs, I was hiding," she recalled.
Tatiana hoped she would be able to return home soon, and so she left her pets in the house when she evacuated. Now she is worried that the animals won’t have survived without sufficient food and water.
Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region on August 6 in an offensive described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a 'large-scale provocation'. A counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on August 9, while more than 133,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk border districts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as 'purely [a] security issue for Ukraine', with fighting ongoing.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
'I prayed I wouldn't get hit' - Residents in Russia's Kursk region recall evacuation following AFU strikes
The residents of the Russia-Ukraine border region of Kursk sheltering in a temporary accommodation centre described their evacuation on Sunday amid Kiev's incursion into Russian territory.
A couple from Makhovka village decided to wait out the first heavy shelling at their son's house in a neighbouring district, but soon it was also attacked.
"We stayed the night there. Everything was quiet. And the following day, bursts of gunfire.<...> There were seven cars. And we drove about 30 kilometres into the woods and spent the night there," Nadezhda Lisikhina explained.
Her husband Nikolai added that they headed further east to the town of Lgov.
"There were damaged cars on both sides [of the road], at least a dozen. <...> A man lying on the ground. People left their cars there as they parked them outside the shop," the witness said.
Another resident Alexander Bogomolov said that he came under fire while being evacuated.
"I saw our guys. They said 'Alexander, we've come to get you'. I grabbed the bags, got in the car, and we drove off. We met two more residents, two women, on the way. We took them too. <...> At that moment, just five minutes after we arrived, the ground trembled, the bridge was hit," he explained.
An evacuee Tatiana Prikhodko moved further from the border to her daughter’s house after the strikes began, however later the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) officers advised her to leave the area.
"The windows in my house were blown out, and the fence, and basement - everything was destroyed. Sure thing. They hit methodically - boom, and it flies. Again boom, you listen to its howl, trying to understand where it falls. I only prayed to God I wouldn't get hit. There's a gully, trees all around, I went down there with the dogs, I was hiding," she recalled.
Tatiana hoped she would be able to return home soon, and so she left her pets in the house when she evacuated. Now she is worried that the animals won’t have survived without sufficient food and water.
Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region on August 6 in an offensive described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a 'large-scale provocation'. A counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on August 9, while more than 133,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk border districts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as 'purely [a] security issue for Ukraine', with fighting ongoing.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
The residents of the Russia-Ukraine border region of Kursk sheltering in a temporary accommodation centre described their evacuation on Sunday amid Kiev's incursion into Russian territory.
A couple from Makhovka village decided to wait out the first heavy shelling at their son's house in a neighbouring district, but soon it was also attacked.
"We stayed the night there. Everything was quiet. And the following day, bursts of gunfire.<...> There were seven cars. And we drove about 30 kilometres into the woods and spent the night there," Nadezhda Lisikhina explained.
Her husband Nikolai added that they headed further east to the town of Lgov.
"There were damaged cars on both sides [of the road], at least a dozen. <...> A man lying on the ground. People left their cars there as they parked them outside the shop," the witness said.
Another resident Alexander Bogomolov said that he came under fire while being evacuated.
"I saw our guys. They said 'Alexander, we've come to get you'. I grabbed the bags, got in the car, and we drove off. We met two more residents, two women, on the way. We took them too. <...> At that moment, just five minutes after we arrived, the ground trembled, the bridge was hit," he explained.
An evacuee Tatiana Prikhodko moved further from the border to her daughter’s house after the strikes began, however later the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) officers advised her to leave the area.
"The windows in my house were blown out, and the fence, and basement - everything was destroyed. Sure thing. They hit methodically - boom, and it flies. Again boom, you listen to its howl, trying to understand where it falls. I only prayed to God I wouldn't get hit. There's a gully, trees all around, I went down there with the dogs, I was hiding," she recalled.
Tatiana hoped she would be able to return home soon, and so she left her pets in the house when she evacuated. Now she is worried that the animals won’t have survived without sufficient food and water.
Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region on August 6 in an offensive described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a 'large-scale provocation'. A counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on August 9, while more than 133,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk border districts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as 'purely [a] security issue for Ukraine', with fighting ongoing.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.