At a meeting with security officials earlier, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that “the defence ministry’s main task is to push, to kick the enemy out of our territory”.

He also said that Ukraine’s motivation for its surprise offensive inside Russia was to improve its negotiating position.

Some 121,000 people have evacuated from Russia’s western Kursk region, officials say, with another 59,000 told to leave.

Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 18 miles (30km) inside Russia – the deepest incursion since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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