Russia on Saturday said that it had evacuated tens of thousands of people from its border region and launched a “counter-terror operation” as it struggled to contain a major Ukrainian incursion.
At the same time, Moscow said that the fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region was endangering a nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian units stormed across the border on Tuesday morning in what is the largest and most successful offensive by Kyiv in the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
Photo: Reuters
Its troops have advanced several kilometers, forcing Russia’s army to rush in reserves and extra equipment — although neither side has given precise details on the forces committed.
Local officials detailed the scale of civilian evacuations from towns and villages close to the combat zone.
“More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted an official from the regional emergency situations ministry telling a briefing on Saturday.
Emergency aid has been ferried into the border area and extra trains to Moscow have been arranged for people fleeing the fighting.
“The war has come to us,” said one woman — who declined to give her name — after arriving at a Moscow train station on Friday.
However, late on Saturday air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
Agence France-Presse journalists said they saw least two flashes in the night sky, and the Ukrainian Air Force said five other regions were being attacked by drones.
Kyiv has maintained strict operational silence on the offensive and for several days Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made only oblique references to the fighting there.
However, in an address on Saturday evening, Zelenskiy referred to Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky’s briefings “on the front line and our actions and pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory.”
Thanking the soldiers involved, he added: “Ukraine is proving that it can really bring justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed — pressure on the aggressor.”
Russia’s army on Saturday said it was still fighting the Ukrainian incursion for a fifth day.
It said Kyiv’s forces had initially crossed the border with about 1,000 troops, 20 armored vehicles and 11 tanks, although it said on Saturday that it had destroyed five times that much military hardware so far.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS