Ukrainian troops entered the Kursk region on Tuesday (August 3), in the most serious offensive on Russian soil since the conflict began in 2022.

“Everything is terrible. They are bombing,” said an elderly man at the station when asked about the situation at the border area, but declined to give his name.

Many people arriving at Kievsky station in Moscow were waiting for relatives to pick them up. An elderly woman traveling with her teenage son sat on a bench on the platform, sadly stroking her cat.

Images released on Friday showed women and children being evacuated from the town of Rylsk in Russia's Kursk region. Authorities have organised extra trains out of the Kursk region to cope with the influx, estimated to be in the thousands.

Images from the town of Sudzha, where the Ukrainian offensive was focused, showed destroyed buildings, debris strewn on the streets and large craters in the ground caused by shelling.

One man said he had come to Moscow from Kurchatov, a town of about 40,000 people in the Kursk region, about 50km from the fighting zone. “The situation there is fine, but the air defences are working very hard,” he said.

Ukraine's surprise attack on the region appears to have caught Russia off guard, with some analysts suggesting Kiev hoped to divert Russian resources and reduce pressure on the frontline.

Outside the station, Lyudmila, 68, from the southwestern Russian city of Oryol, was concerned that Ukraine might attack other regions. “That’s why Mr Putin should probably take more decisive military action, because I’m afraid we might be the next target,” she said.

Hong Hanh (according to SCMP, AP)