Russia orders evacuations from Kursk as Ukraine strikes Putin’s airfields – live

Nearly 200,000 Russians have been forced to evacuate border regions near the site where, during World War Two in 1943, the Red Army defeated Nazi forces in one of the world’s biggest-ever tank battles.

Mr Putin said Ukraine “with the help of its Western masters” was aiming to improve Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks.

Mr Zelensky has said the incursion is meant to pressure Russian forces and “restore justice” after Russia’s invasion.

Russia has been digging trenches in Kursk to prevent the Ukrainian troops from advancing further into Vladimir Putin’s territory, satellite images show.

Ukrainian troops have pushed into the Kursk region of Russia, just north of their border, in the most extensive incursion by Kyiv’s forces in the 30-month-long war.

Russian forces have dug trenches nearly 45-50km from the border with Ukraine to deter the military advance. “The farthest point is near Kursk, 75km from the border,” Independent Russian news outlet Agentstvo reported.

The “trenches appeared at the intersection, which was passed by convoys of Russian equipment sent to the Kursk region on Friday”, it added.

Ukrainian troops have taken more than 100 Russian prisoners during their cross-border advance into Russia, military commander Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested the prisoners will eventually be swapped for Ukrainian prisoners of war, referring to them as an “exchange fund”.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereschuk, said yesterday that the military plans to open humanitarian corridors that would allow civilians in Ukraine-controlled areas of the Kursk region to head elsewhere in Russia or into Ukraine.

Ukraine says its territorial gains in Russia will provide a strategic buffer zone to protect its own border areas from Russian attacks.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he met top officials to discuss the humanitarian situation and establishing a military commandant’s offices “if needed” in an occupied area that Kyiv says exceeds 1,000sq km.

“We continue to advance further in Kursk,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, adding: “from one to two km in various areas since the start of the day”.

He suggested the growing number of Russian prisoners of war taken in Kursk could be exchanged for Ukrainian fighters.“Our advance in Kursk is going well today – we are reaching our strategic goal. The ‘exchange fund’ for our state has also been significantly replenished.”

Ukrainian soldiers have ambushed a truck filled with Russian troops as they continue their Kursk offensive.

Bodycam footage shows Ukrainian soldiers in pursuit of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers with grenades and guns.

A military vehicle also bursts into flames with plumes of black smoke sent billowing up into the air.

Authorities in Russia’s Kursk region have decided to evacuate the population of its Glushkov district, acting governor Alexei Smirnov said, amid the continued advance of Ukrainian forces into the border region.

Police and other state bodies would coordinate to evacuate 20,000 people from the district directly bordering Ukraine, Mr Smirnov said on the Telegram.

Ukraine said yesterday its cross-border invasion had advanced one to two kilometres into the Kursk region since the start of the day and that its troops had finished clearing the Russian border town of Sudzha of Moscow’s forces.

Russian officials have said that nearly 200,000 people were being evacuated following the attack.