Marina and her family were used to hearing the distant boom of explosions from their village in Russia’s Kursk region, just a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
On the night of August 6, the explosions became so loud their beds began shaking.
“Nobody knew anything,” the 39-year-old hairdresser told Agence France-Presse at a humanitarian aid center run by the Orthodox Church in Moscow.
Ukrainian soldiers and armored vehicles began pouring into the region in the early hours of that morning, mounting the biggest cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.
The operation came almost 2½ years into Russia’s assault on Ukraine, which has seen Moscow capture large swaths of Ukrainian territory and strike Ukrainian cities.
But for many living in the border region, the attack came as a surprise.
“Drones started flying over the farms, over fields, over cars,” said Marina. “We couldn’t get through to anyone to find out how to leave, and where to go.”
‘Can’t get out’
When her village some 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from the border was cut off from electricity and water, Marina knew they had to leave.
“Some said maybe it’ll blow over, and so maybe they stayed till the last minute. Now, they can’t get out of there,” she said.
Despite the risks, Marina’s partner, Yevgeny, decided to take her and their two children to the region’s capital, Kursk, a place that was still safe “for a few days,” he thought.
They left their dog and cat behind.
As they saw the long line of cars on the road and deserted villages, they finally realized the scale of the attack under way.
The family reached Kursk in the early morning, where they found accommodation in a center for evacuees.
Their neighbors were not so lucky: They were injured by a drone as they fled.
“We hoped it would all be over soon,” Marina said.
But on Sunday, debris from a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a residential building in Kursk, injuring 15 people, according to the authorities.
At least 12 civilians have been killed and more than 100 injured since the incursion began, according to authorities.
‘There’s nothing left’
The family went to Moscow, where their friends were waiting for them — four of them already living in a tiny studio flat north of the capital.
Now living eight to a room, Marina and Yevgeny have been desperately trying to find out what’s happening in their home region.
Half an hour before meeting AFP at the Moscow aid center, Yevgeny managed to contact a neighbor, who confirmed the Ukrainian army was now occupying their village.
“They’ve moved into my father-in-law’s house, which he’d just renovated, right next to the shop that they’ve already emptied,” he said.
Ukraine has said it will open humanitarian corridors for civilians in the captured territory so they can evacuate toward Russia or Ukraine.
Russia says more than 120,000 people have fled fighting in the region, but Yevgeny said many of his neighbors were stuck.
“Honestly, it’s a tricky situation. Nobody’s going to kick them out in a day and a half,” Yevgeny told AFP of the Ukrainian army.
“The longer it goes on, the more time they have, the better their position is, and the harder it will be to drive them out.”
“In short, there’ll be nothing left to live in. There’s nothing left,” he said.
A neighbor managed to let Marina and Yevgeny’s cat and dog out of the house, where they had been locked for several days.
“Now, they’ll have to find their own food in the village,” he said sadly.
