RUSSIA’S Ministry for Emergencies declared the situation in the Kursk region a “federal level” emergency today, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured over the border in what appeared to be Kiev’s biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began.

“The operational situation in the Kursk region remains difficult,” Kursk acting governor Alexei Smirnov said on the messaging app Telegram.

Social services and civic associations are providing assistance to people forced to flee their homes by the fighting, he said. The last Russian figure for evacuations in Kursk was 3,000.