04:07Locals in the village of Belaya have resisted calls to evacuate and have stayed to protect their homes in the Kursk region amid Kiev’s surprise incursion into the Russian region.
Footage captured on Wednesday shows deserted streets and a building destroyed by shelling. Medics are seen working in an operating room while volunteers are shown delivering humanitarian aid.
"At night, the street lights are obviously turned off so that the village can't be seen.... But there is no one outside, just dogs, which people have let loose, leaving their houses, so that the dogs survived. Only dogs are wandering loose, and no one is around,” Nikolai, a local man said.
He added that in the first days of the AFU offensive, the situation in the village was difficult, but now, grocery stores and bakeries have re-opened as life slowly returns to normality.
Meanwhile, a team of four at the Central hospital in the Belovsky district say they are sleeping at their workstations and only leaving the building during periods of intense shelling, returning as soon as the danger subsides.
"We should help people. <...> They are our children. How can we not come back?" explained nurse Elena Trusova.
According to reports, Ukrainian forces entered Kursk region on August 6, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called a 'large-scale provocation'.
Putin met with governors of Russia's border regions on Monday. According to the Kursk region's acting government, 12 people were killed, 121 wounded, including 10 children, in the attack.
Kursk's acting governor also claimed that "28 settlements are under the enemy's control", with Ukrainian forces advancing 12 kilometres in depth and 40 kilometres across.
A counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on August 9, while around 121,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk border districts.
On Tuesday, AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky claimed that Ukrainian forces controlled '74 settlements', having previously stated that his forces had '1,000 square kilometres' of Russian territory. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as 'purely [a] security issue for Ukraine'.
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.
'Only dogs wandering loose' - Kursk Locals describe village life after evacuations
Locals in the village of Belaya have resisted calls to evacuate and have stayed to protect their homes in the Kursk region amid Kiev’s surprise incursion into the Russian region.
Footage captured on Wednesday shows deserted streets and a building destroyed by shelling. Medics are seen working in an operating room while volunteers are shown delivering humanitarian aid.
"At night, the street lights are obviously turned off so that the village can't be seen.... But there is no one outside, just dogs, which people have let loose, leaving their houses, so that the dogs survived. Only dogs are wandering loose, and no one is around,” Nikolai, a local man said.
He added that in the first days of the AFU offensive, the situation in the village was difficult, but now, grocery stores and bakeries have re-opened as life slowly returns to normality.
Meanwhile, a team of four at the Central hospital in the Belovsky district say they are sleeping at their workstations and only leaving the building during periods of intense shelling, returning as soon as the danger subsides.
"We should help people. <...> They are our children. How can we not come back?" explained nurse Elena Trusova.
According to reports, Ukrainian forces entered Kursk region on August 6, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called a 'large-scale provocation'.
Putin met with governors of Russia's border regions on Monday. According to the Kursk region's acting government, 12 people were killed, 121 wounded, including 10 children, in the attack.
Kursk's acting governor also claimed that "28 settlements are under the enemy's control", with Ukrainian forces advancing 12 kilometres in depth and 40 kilometres across.
A counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on August 9, while around 121,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk border districts.
On Tuesday, AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky claimed that Ukrainian forces controlled '74 settlements', having previously stated that his forces had '1,000 square kilometres' of Russian territory. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as 'purely [a] security issue for Ukraine'.
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.
Locals in the village of Belaya have resisted calls to evacuate and have stayed to protect their homes in the Kursk region amid Kiev’s surprise incursion into the Russian region.
Footage captured on Wednesday shows deserted streets and a building destroyed by shelling. Medics are seen working in an operating room while volunteers are shown delivering humanitarian aid.
"At night, the street lights are obviously turned off so that the village can't be seen.... But there is no one outside, just dogs, which people have let loose, leaving their houses, so that the dogs survived. Only dogs are wandering loose, and no one is around,” Nikolai, a local man said.
He added that in the first days of the AFU offensive, the situation in the village was difficult, but now, grocery stores and bakeries have re-opened as life slowly returns to normality.
Meanwhile, a team of four at the Central hospital in the Belovsky district say they are sleeping at their workstations and only leaving the building during periods of intense shelling, returning as soon as the danger subsides.
"We should help people. <...> They are our children. How can we not come back?" explained nurse Elena Trusova.
According to reports, Ukrainian forces entered Kursk region on August 6, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called a 'large-scale provocation'.
Putin met with governors of Russia's border regions on Monday. According to the Kursk region's acting government, 12 people were killed, 121 wounded, including 10 children, in the attack.
Kursk's acting governor also claimed that "28 settlements are under the enemy's control", with Ukrainian forces advancing 12 kilometres in depth and 40 kilometres across.
A counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on August 9, while around 121,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk border districts.
On Tuesday, AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky claimed that Ukrainian forces controlled '74 settlements', having previously stated that his forces had '1,000 square kilometres' of Russian territory. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as 'purely [a] security issue for Ukraine'.
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.