Ukraine volunteers evacuate residents near Russia's embattled Kursk region

10/8/2024 12:16

        Ukrainian volunteers evacuated dozens of residents, and their pets, from northern Sumy region in anticipation of more Russian attacks in response to Ukraine's cross-border military incursion into the Kursk region.
        
        The residents trundled toward the pick-up point, their overflowing carrier bags loaded onto carts, as Russian forces intensified aerial guided bomb attacks.
        Svitlana Linova, pushing her bicycle with her cat Murchik in its carrier, was in no doubt it was time to go.
        
        "There was such heavy shelling yesterday from the other side of the border," she said. "The lamp and ceiling started to fall."
        
        She said she had untied her neighbours' dogs and let them go free when it became apparent they would not be returning anytime soon.
        
        Sumy Governor Volodymyr Artiukh ordered 28 villages evacuated from a 10-km (six-mile) zone hugging the border. National police said on Friday that 20,000 would have to leave.