A City of Blaring Sirens Fills With Russians Who Fled Ukraine’s Advance

In the Russian city of Kursk, several dozen miles from the heart of the fighting, Ukraine’s surprise thrust into Russia is not visible even as smoke on the horizon. But the scars of its impact are impossible to miss.

More than 130,000 people, according to the Russian authorities, have fled border areas or been evacuated from them since Ukrainian forces began their incursion on Aug. 6. Many have found themselves in this regional capital, a city of about a half-million.

During a recent visit, people awaited in long lines for help with accommodation and other basic necessities like blankets. They jostled for position and sometimes shoved, but they did not move when sirens wailed repeatedly, warning of a potential drone or missile attack.

Many walls bore posters seeking word of loved ones who lived in the path of the Ukrainian incursion. Some had been placed by Lyubov Prilutskaya, 36, a Kursk resident who has lost contact with her parents in Sudzha, a town six miles from the border that Ukraine now says it fully controls.