“We have nothing; we came here with no clothes on,” said Valentina, an elderly Russian woman who escaped from her home in eastern Kursk, Ukraine. Like many others, she evacuated her home to escape the impending conflict of the Russian-Ukrainian War.

In early August 2024, Ukraine ordered a surprise incursion into the Russian border region of Kursk. Ukraine provided several motives for the operation, the main to prompt Russia to reallocate its troops, taking pressure off Ukraine’s Eastern border.

A month later, Russia deployed its troops into Kursk to combat the attack. The initial 500 captured square miles , 10% of Kursk, shrank as Russia pushed back.

Apti Alaudinov, the Russian Commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces deployed in Kursk, called the situation “good,” stating that Russian troops had “gone on the offensive.”

However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in an interview: “Maybe someone expected different results, but it gave the results that, frankly, we expected. The enemy has been stopped in the Kharkiv region, and the progress in the Donetsk region, has been slowed down.”

Despite both sides claiming victories, Kursk residents are far from victorious. In response to the incursion, 110,000 Kursk residents and counting have evacuated their homes, taking only what they could carry. For Valentina, this meant abandoning her horse and piglets. Without them, Valentina said, she had “nothing left.”

Unlike Ukrainians, the displaced Russian population will likely not emigrate to other countries. Instead, they will likely continue to migrate westward into Russia.

Arguably, the most unfortunate part of war is the innocent people caught in the crossfire. With the Russia-Ukraine conflict spreading to Russia, more people face this reality.