Blame game Locals angry at army after Ukrainian incursion

Shock, disbelief and fury that the government downplayed the threat of an invasion and failed to keep its citizens safe

- Nataliya Vasilyeva

Lyubov Antipova last spoke to her elderly parents more than two weeks ago, when she first heard rumours of a Ukrainian incursion, and begged them to leave their village in Russia's Kursk region.

The threat seemed unreal - Russian soil had not seen invading forces since the end of the second world war - and Russian state media initially dismissed the invasion as a one-off "attempt at infiltration", so Antipova's parents, who keep chickens and a pig on a small plot, decided to stay in Zaoleshenka.

The next day, Antipova saw photographs online of Ukrainian soldiers posing next to a supermarket and the office of a gas company. She recognised the place immediately: her parents live about 50 metres away.

"All those years my parents didn't think they would be affected," Antipova told the Observer by phone from Kursk, carefully avoiding using the word "war", which has been officially outlawed in Russia. "We were sure the Russian army would protect us. I'm amazed how quickly the Ukrainian forces advanced."

Ukraine's incursion into Russia has laid bare the apparent complacency of Russian officials in charge of the border. Many local people accuse the government of downplaying the Ukrainian attack or misinforming them of the danger.