Vladimir Putin is facing the wrath of the public who have accused him of “abandoning” them after Ukraine launched her operation in Kursk Oblast.
The first wave of the attack was captured on video by a group of women who arrival of Ukrainian soldiers in the region on August 6.
In the video, posted that evening on a Telegram blog called “Our native Sudzha', a woman can be heard saying: “We have been left alone. With children, without shelter, without money. Our children are afraid to sleep at night.”
By the time the video was shared on the platform, The Ukrainian forces were advancing more than 10 hours through the region.
Another woman in the clip said: “There is no evacuation from the Sudzha area. People are crossing the river in boats, under shelling, and walking through the forest. These are ordinary people, help them evacuate!”
Since the beginning of the invasion, more than 133,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk – but locals have since regretted the lack of government support in the early days.
Evacuees said they were forced to leave behind most of their belongings, often without papers. Some even had to leave behind bedridden family members or beloved pets.
Evgeny Bakalo, a resident of neighboring Belgorod regiontold The Financial Times: “It wasn't pretty.”
He has since offered to help civilians in Kursk, but has not had a single kind word to say about Putin's ongoing war.
Bakalo said: “We should call it a war, a full military operation. Not some kind of counter-terrorism or a special military operation. That is completely wrong.”
Russian state media has reported the Ukrainian call it a “terrorist attack.” Some even dismissed it as simply the “situation in the Kursk border regions.”
The Kremlin remained silent about the attack for hours and the country's security service, the FSB, tried to convince the public that the military had taken action “measures” to address the “armed provocation”.
However, this reaction only led to more counter-reactions from evacuees in Kursk. In the video, a gray-haired man in a black T-shirt addresses the Russian president directly to demand his attention.
He said: “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]tell your officials who are responsible for truthful information to show the real situation. These lies are causing civilians to die.”
Putin's absence from the radio in the initial phase of the invasion fits in with his long-used “wait-and-see” tactic in major situations, according to Ekaterina Schulmann.
The Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center scholar said: “Putin has always been known for his tendency to disappear from the public eye in critical situations. He chooses a wait-and-see attitude.
“In an autocratic system this can work, but the question is how long can you ignore the outside reality before it hits you?”