Russia has evacuated parts of another region bordering Ukraine just days after Kyiv launched the first foreign invasion into Russia since the Second World War.

Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early on Tuesday and swept across some western parts of Russia’s Kursk region, forcing the evacuation of some 76,000.

However, Moscow on Monday began evacuating thousands in the neighbouring Belgorod region to the south after Kyiv sharply increased military activity near the border.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor, said residents of the Krasnaya Yaruga district were being moved to “safer places” due to threat of “enemy activity on the border”.

Kyiv has deployed thousands of troops to the surprise operation, military officials said, seizing the battlefield initiative after months of slow Russian advances across the east.

The assault seemed to catch the Kremlin off guard, with Moscow’s army on Sunday admitting that Ukraine had been able to penetrate its territory by up to 20 miles in places.

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