Kursk attack will force Russia to negotiate, says Zelensky aide

It has been a “very, very, extremely anxious” time and “very frightening” since the Ukrainian incursion began, a Kursk resident has told the BBC’s Ukrainecast programme.

“It’s anger, it’s fright, it’s fear, it’s anxiety, it’s sadness, it’s grief,” says Zhenya, whose name has been changed.

She says the hardest part has been seeing destruction in the city where she grew up, “where I know everything, a post office, the shops, everything, it’s devastating”.

It was at this moment that Zhenya realised that the war had finally reached her, “like a boomerang”.

“Some people are just literally paralysed by the horror of everything that’s going on,” she says.

But others are refusing to admit what is happening, Zhenya says, “even though that’s harder and harder every day”.

Watching this war since it began two years ago, Zhenya kept thinking “this could have been my city”.

“Well now it is.”