Report: Russia Evacuating 180,000 People From Border Over Ukraine Invasion
The acting governor of Kursk, Russia – a border region Ukraine launched an invasion into last week – told Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on Monday he has evacuated 121,000 people from their homes and plans to move another 59,000 out of threatened areas as soon as possible.
Reports began surfacing on August 6 of Ukrainian troops crossing the border and seizing territory in Kursk, which Ukrainian officials have long identified as a launchpad for attacks into their territory. The attacks mark the first time since Putin launched a “special operation” to oust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2022 that Ukraine pushes Russian forces back into uncontested Russian territory and seizes Russian land. It is also the first time since World War II that Russia has lost land to a foreign invader.
The operation was preceded by an odd declaration by Zelensky in January branding Kursk and five other Russian territories “historically” Ukrainian.
Putin has colonized five regions of Ukraine arguing that they are rightfully Russian territory: Crimea in 2014 and the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia in 2022.
Governor Alexei Smirnov made the shocking revelation of the size of the evacuation operation in Kursk on Monday evening during a meeting with Putin that also featured the governors of two other border regions, Belgorod and Bryansk. (Read more from “Report: Russia Evacuating 180,000 People From Border Over Ukraine Invasion” HERE)
