Ukraine seizes 74 villages in Kursk as Russia claims to thwart further incursion

Russian residents are being ordered to leave their homes after Ukraine's surprise incursion across the border, as ITV News' John Ray reports

The number of villages in Russia's Kursk region now under Ukrainian military control has risen to 74, after an incursion launched on August 6 has forced more than 120,000 people to flee.

Despite the attack initially taking Russia by surprise, its defence ministry said its forces had struck back against Ukraine's troops.

Russian army units, including fresh reserves, aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces stopped Ukrainian armoured mobile groups from moving deeper into the Kursk region, a defence ministry statement claimed.

Meanwhile, commander of the Ukrainian military Oleksandr Syrskyi said its forces had gained control of over 40 square kilometres in the past 24 hours.

A column of Russian Army trucks damaged by shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the highway in the Sudzhansky district. Credit: AP

A spokesperson for the country's foreign ministry said the operation was about protecting Ukrainian land from long-range missile strikes from Kursk.

“Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Heorhii Tykhyi said.

"The purpose of this operation is to preserve the lives of our children, to protect the territory of Ukraine from Russian strikes."

He added Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes from the Kursk region in recent months using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and more than 100 missiles.

On Monday, Vladimir Putin vowed to "kick the enemy out" of Russian territory.

The Russian president said: “It’s obvious that the enemy will keep trying to destabilise the situation in the border zone to try to destabilise the domestic political situation in our country."

He claimed the attack marked an attempt by Ukraine to secure a better negotiating position in any future talks to end the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a meeting with top security and defence officials. Credit: AP

Posting an update on X, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday he was "grateful to all soldiers and commanders for their resilience and decisive actions."

He also suggested Ukraine would offer humanitarian assistance in the region, where Russian authorities claim 12 civilians have been killed and 121 others, including 10 children, have been wounded.

The attack marks the largest ground incursion on Russian soil by Ukrainian forces in the two-and-a-half years since the war began - and also the most significant attack since World War Two.

State propaganda has tried to play down the attack, which took Russian forces by complete surprise.

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

Around 121,000 people have fled the areas where fighting is taking place, with a total planned number of evacuations estimated to be 180,000, acting governor of Kursk Alexei Smirnov confirmed.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the neighbouring Belgorod region, said people living in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district were being moved to safety.

People who have been evacuated queue to receive humanitarian aid at a distribution center in Kursk, Russia. Credit: AP

"I am sure that our military will do everything to cope with this threat," he said.

"But to protect the life and health of our people, we are beginning to relocate people who live in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district to safer places."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know…