Photographer and social activist Oleg Pogozhik arrived at his studio in Kursk, western Russia, to work on Sunday as explosions rang out.
The Kursk region, located on the border, was occasionally subjected to shelling during the early days of the all-out war with Ukraine. Fighting intensified last August when Ukraine launched a bold invasion of the region and captured several settlements. Russia has since recaptured much of the captured territory.
But fighting reignited this weekend when Ukraine launched a new offensive in Kursk.
“Everything is as usual. Missile warning sirens blared and an explosion occurred somewhere nearby,” Pogoziv wrote on his Telegram feed titled “Eyes of Kursk.”
“It’s especially noisy today. I’m in the studio, and several times I’ve been shaking so much that I’ve covered my ears. It’s close. So close that the enemy has no idea what they’re trying to accomplish. The question arises, of course, that their aim is to spoil the holiday season, cause panic and distract attention.
At about 9 o’clock that morning, Ukrainian forces began a new advance, advancing from the occupied Suzha towards the villages of Berdin and Bolshoye Soldatskoy, on the way to the city of Kursk.
“The incidents started happening much earlier, after midnight,” Yan Furtsev, a local official from Russia’s liberal opposition party Yabloko, told Al Jazeera.
“Missile threat alarms began to sound and explosions from the activation of anti-missile defense systems could be heard on the streets of Kursk.However, the frequency of explosions on this night was higher than on previous January nights or even December nights. Nearly 16 missile alerts and one drone attack alert were heard in nearly 24 hours.
During the invasion, Deputy Defense Minister Yunus Bek Yevkurov visited Kursk and met with the local governor. The reason for his visit has not been officially disclosed, but it is believed that he came to personally supervise the defense of the area.
Furtsev added: “All this cannot but cause concern among citizens living in the city of Kursk, because the sound and shock waves from crashed drones and missiles are clearly transmitted to the outskirts of the city. ”, he added, adding that local residents have felt an uptick in anxiety in the first week. January is a government holiday in Russia, so there is little information available.
But not all residents are terrified.
“Everything is nice and quiet in Kursk,” Pogozhiv told Al Jazeera.
“I trust the Russian army. It may be noisy, but people are not worried. It seems that the attacks of (enemy) troops are only on Telegram. In reality, this is far from the truth Life goes on as usual. Few people pay attention to the Russian air defense forces, which shoot down drones and missiles. Of course, the enemy targets civilian objects, including women, children, and the elderly. If he dies, we get a little angry.”
Oleg Ignatov, a senior analyst at Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the scale of Ukraine’s attack is “still small.”
“There have been no notable results so far,” he said. “Russian troops are better prepared to defend their country this time. But what happened is probably a diversion or test to follow large-scale strike attempts elsewhere.”
He added that Ukraine needed “new successes on the ground” before the start of US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, with many pointing to the trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine war, possibly towards a ceasefire. I expect it to change.
“Like the Kursk operation in the summer, here too the objective is not military, but political,” Ignatov said.
In October, Russian authorities reported that at least 398 civilians had died as a result of fighting in Russia’s border areas since February 2022.
“As for the city of Kursk, last month was much calmer. Depending on the day, there were sometimes one or two missile threat warnings a day,” Furtsev said.
“As for the Kursk region in general, in the second half of December and the beginning of January, the border towns of Rylsk and Lugov, as well as the village of Ivanovskoye in the Rylsk region, were attacked by Ukrainian troops. As a result, the city suffered heavy damage. .Repair of destroyed objects is still ongoing. In border areas, people are likely to die. On January 3, a 63-year-old man was killed in the Rylsk district after being hit by a combat drone.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Sunday’s invasion consisted of “two tanks, one anti-obstruction vehicle and 12 armored fighting vehicles.”
The Russian military then claimed to have repelled the attack, destroying some Ukrainian armored units with heavy airstrikes and artillery fire.
Last August, Ukrainian forces captured a swath of territory just above Russia’s internal border, including the town of Suzha, home to a vital pipeline supplying Russian gas to Europe. However, gas supplies were cut off on January 1 after an agreement between the warring sides expired.
During the occupation of Suja, Ukraine was responsible for maintaining law and order and providing necessities such as food, water and medicine, but the remaining locals had their mobile phones confiscated to prevent them from reporting movements to the enemy. did.
In September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested in an interview with NBC that the fate of Kursk could influence future ceasefire negotiations. In November, displaced persons from Suja staged a small protest in Kursk, accusing the authorities of failing to protect them.
However, despite Ukraine’s initial successes, Russia is gradually losing ground, and Suzha itself comes under fire as Russia attempts to retake it.
Russian forces in the region reportedly have 12,000 reinforcements from their ally North Korea, but the Kremlin denies all claims about North Korean troops. Even if North Koreans are present, they remain discreet and rarely appear in public.
“There are all kinds of rumors,” Pogozik said.
“I have heard about the Koreans, but I take it as just a story. But it is true that the gods and the Almighty are helping the Russians.”
Still, Moscow’s forces may not have been able to decisively rout the Ukrainians.
Before Sunday’s operation, President Zelenskyy claimed that heavy losses had been inflicted on Russian and North Korean soldiers, and that a North Korean battalion had reportedly been wiped out near the village of Makhnovka.
