Steve Rosenberg, Russia Correspondent
For practically a fortnight now Ukrainian forces have been seizing and occupying Russian territory.
Ukraine’s cross-border assault into Kursk area marks the primary time since World Battle II {that a} overseas military has been preventing inside Russia.
It’s a dramatic and sudden improvement on this battle, practically two-and-a-half years after President Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin has vowed to ‘drive the enemy’ out of Russia. President Putin hasn’t publicly used the phrase ‘invasion’ to explain the Ukrainian offensive, as if to minimize what is going on and keep away from any sense of panic.
However how are the Russian individuals reacting?
Drive two-and-a-half hours south of Moscow, into Tula area, and also you’ll arrive within the small leafy city of Aleksin.
It’s solely 100 miles from Moscow, but one way or the other feels a world away from the Russian capital.
The day we go to there’s a ‘patriotic’ pop live performance in town sq.. The general public I converse with specific alarm at what is going on additional south.
Since February 2022 Russian state TV has been reporting Russian forces working in Ukraine.
Nobody right here anticipated Russia’s border to be broached. There’s an evident fatigue. Everybody talks of the necessity for peace. However proper now there is no such thing as a widespread view of how this may be achieved.
Repeating the official messaging of the state media, some Russians name for “peace on Russia’s phrases” (in different phrases, Ukraine’s full capitulation).
Others specific hope that Moscow and Kyiv will sit down on the negotiating desk and work out a solution to finish the battle.
The Kremlin continues to be calling what its troops are doing in Ukraine a “particular army operation.” It says that now Russia is conducting a “counter-terrorism operation” in Kursk area.
That’s the official view. However peculiar Russians use one easy phrase to explain all of this: ‘battle.’
Producer: Liza Shuvalova
