Russian army concedes Ukraine advances in Kursk offensive

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has waged an unrelenting campaign, occupying swathes of the east and south and subjecting Ukrainian cities to daily missile and drone attacks.
After re-capturing large areas in 2022, Kyiv has largely been on the back foot, increasingly struggling with manpower and arms supplies.
The assault on the Kursk region has been the largest and most successful cross-border offensive by Kyiv so far – and the most significant attack by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II.
Russia said Saturday that more than 76,000 civilians had been evacuated from border areas, with more leaving on Sunday.
Ukraine’s Sumy region has also come under retaliatory fire, and authorities there plan to evacuate some 20,000 people from the border zone.
At an evacuation centre in the regional capital of Sumy, retired metal worker Mykola, who had fled his village of Khotyn some 10 kilometres from the Russian border, said the offensive had given him a morale boost.
“Let’s let them find out what it’s like. They don’t understand what war is. Let them have a taste of it,” the 70-year-old told AFP.