Euphoria and fear on border after Ukraine's incursion into Russia

Last Tuesday, Oksana and her two children could not escape fast enough.

- Dan Sabbagh

Though they did not I know it, Ukrainian regular forces had entered Russia for the first time, and Moscow's military wasted little time in hitting back, bombing their village 7 miles from the border.

"It was 9am and the first glide bomb hit the village," she said, and its ferocity - "very scary, much bigger" than ordinary shelling was such that they immediately knew they had to escape. "Our neighbour drove his children first and then came back and picked up me and my sister and family," she explained.

Like hundreds of others from the Ukrainian borderlands where last week's surprise attack was launched, Oksana and her family travelled to Sumy, normally a 40-minute drive. Having rented a property, they were working out what to do next at a crowded refugee centre in the city.

Others lining up to register as internally displaced people told similar stories: while there had been periodic crossborder shelling before, this time was different. "What happened last week was times 100," said Mykola, 69, who was evacuated with his wife from Yunakivka, 5 miles from the border, on Sunday.

Ukraine's civilian authorities had little formal warning of the attack, though some people in the area suspected something was coming. Once it had begun, they announced the mandatory evacuation of 6,000 people from villages between 3 miles and 6 miles from the border - and it is unclear when they may be able to return.