AttacksRefugee flows
Russia reclaimed its occupied Kursk borderlands a year and a half ago. Meduza visited the region to find out why many refugees still can’t go home and why some locals watch drone attacks like a show.
In early August 2024, Ukraine invaded Russia’s Kursk region. Despite officials’ promises to drive Ukrainian forces out within months or even days, a substantial part of the region remained under Ukrainian control until the following spring. Russia had not experienced occupation since World War II, and life in the Kursk region still has not returned to normal. Refugees remain, and the border villages where some — though not many — are trying to return are uninhabitable. A Meduza correspondent traveled to Kursk to see what life is like in one of the Russian cities hit hardest by the war.