Vladimir Putin orders army to ‘dislodge’ Ukraine as over 120,000 flee border

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin ordered his army on Monday (Aug 12) to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops who have entered Russian territory as authorities said over 120,000 people had been evacuated away from the fighting.
Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region last Tuesday, capturing over two dozen settlements in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.
Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrsky told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video posted Monday that his troops now control about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory and are continuing “offensive operations”.
Putin told a televised meeting with government officials that “one of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord” and “destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society”.
“The main task is, of course, for the defence ministry to dislodge the enemy from our territories,” he said.
Zelenskyy told the nation in his evening address that the cross-border offensive was “purely a security issue”, capturing “areas from which the Russia army struck at our Sumy region”.
Some 121,000 people have fled the Kursk region since the start of the fighting, which has killed at least 12 civilians and injured 121 more, regional governor Alexei Smirnov told the meeting with Putin.
Authorities in Kursk announced on Monday they were widening their evacuation area to include a district with some 14,000 residents. The neighbouring Belgorod region also said it was evacuating a new border district.
Ukraine has pierced into the region by at least 12 kilometres (seven miles) and has captured 28 towns and villages, with the new front 40 kilometres long, Smirnov said.
But Syrsky said that “as of now, about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory are under control,” suggesting the area captured is more than twice as large.
He said that fighting was ongoing along almost the whole front and “the situation is under our control”.
Putin said Russia would respond by showing “unanimous support for all those in distress” and claimed there had been an increase in men signing up to fight.
“The enemy will receive a worthy riposte,” he said.
Political analyst and former diplomat at US Embassy Moscow Donald Jensen said by all indications, Putin “is hardening his resolve to win and that means no (peace) talks”.
Jensen told CNA’s Asia First programme that the Russians see negotiations as a tool for victory, not a means to a settlement. Ukraine’s desire for independence is also opposite of Russia’s wish to annihilate Ukraine.
“That means there is a huge gap between the two sides. I wouldn’t expect (peace talks) to happen anytime soon, unless one side or the other collapses on the battlefield,” added the senior advisor for Russia and Europe at non-profit US Institute of Peace.
The assault appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard. Russia’s army rushed in reserve troops, tanks, aviation, artillery and drones in a bid to quash it.
But it conceded on Sunday that Ukraine had penetrated up to 30km into Russian territory in places.
A Ukrainian security official told AFP, on condition of anonymity over the weekend, that “the aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border”.
The Ukrainian official said thousands of Ukrainian troops were involved in the operation.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that its air defence systems had destroyed 18 Ukrainian drones – including 11 over the Kursk region.
Smirnov said Monday that more than 46,000 residents in the Kursk region have applied for financial assistance.
Russia’s rail operator has meanwhile organised emergency trains from Kursk to Moscow, around 450km away, for those fleeing.
“It’s scary to have helicopters flying over your head all the time,” said Marina, who arrived by train in Moscow on Sunday, declining to give her surname. “When it was possible to leave, I left.”
Across the border in Ukraine’s Sumy region, AFP journalists on Sunday saw dozens of armoured vehicles daubed with a white triangle – the insignia being used to identify Ukrainian military hardware deployed in the attack.
At an evacuation centre in the regional capital of Sumy, 70-year-old retired metal worker Mykola, who fled his village of Khotyn some 10 kilometres from the Russian border, welcomed Ukraine’s push into Russia.
“Let’s let them find out what it’s like,” he told AFP. “They don’t understand what war is. Let them have a taste of it.”
Analysts think Kyiv may have launched the assault to relieve pressure on its troops in other parts of the frontline.
Jensen said Ukraine has a few goals, including taking the initiative on the battlefield from the Russians as well as using Kursk as a negotiating tool if talks do happen in the future.
“But I would stress – this is a major blow to Vladimir Putin politically, especially (because), above all, he had been almost arrogant. You saw how angry he was today at the meeting in Moscow,” Jensen added.
“I think the Ukrainians have to be careful of a number of things because this could go the wrong way. But for now, Russia remains defensive, somewhat chaotic and frankly humiliated in the world.”
Russia’s defence ministry said Monday troops had “accelerated the speed of advance” in the eastern Donetsk region and taken the hamlet of Lysychne in their push towards the city of Pokrovsk.
The Ukrainian official said Kyiv’s troops “are not pulling back troops from the (Donetsk) area,” while “the intensity of Russian attacks has gone down a little bit”.
The Ukrainian official said he expected Russia would “in the end” stop the Kursk incursion.
Ukraine was bracing for a large-scale retaliatory missile attack, including “on decision-making centres” in Ukraine, the official said.