Russia orders fresh evacuations as it battles Ukraine attack

Two Russian regions bordering Ukraine ordered more evacuations on Monday as Moscow battled to contain an unprecedented push onto its territory.

Ukraine sent troops into Russia last week in its biggest cross-border operation since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022 and the most significant by a foreign army since World War II.

Authorities in the Kursk region announced they were widening their evacuation area to include Belovsky district, home to some 14,000 people. The neighbouring Belgorod region said it was evacuating its border district of Krasnoyaruzhsky.

"For the health and security of our population, we're beginning to move people who live in Krasnoyaruzhsky to safer places," Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

The assault on Kursk had already led to 76,000 people being ordered out.

A top Ukrainian official told AFP over the weekend that the operation was aimed at stretching Russian troops and destabilising the country after months of slow Russian advances across the frontline.

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 the army on Sunday conceded that Ukraine had penetrated up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) into Russian territory in places.

In a briefing, the defense ministry said it had "foiled attempts" by Ukraine's forces to "break through deep into Russian territory" using armoured vehicles.

But it said some forces were near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, some 25 kilometres and 30 kilometres from the Russia-Ukraine border.

A Ukrainian security official told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that "the aim is to stretch the...