The simple gesture that proves just how much pressure Putin is under

Yet another symbol of Vladimir Putin’s humiliation – and Ukraine’s victory in Russia – is being shared on Telegram.

CCTV footage shows troops victoriously taking down a Russian flag from the top of the House of Culture in the village of Vnezapnoe, in Kursk.

It is a scene that is being repeated as Ukrainian forces ramp up attacks in the west of the border region.

It is the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two, upending the status quo two and a half years into Putin’s invasion.

Evacuated people in the Kursk region queue to fill out the form for humanitarian aid at a distribution centre in Kursk (Picture: AP)

Any ‘landgrab’ could give Volodymyr Zelensky an upper hand in negotiations with the Kremlin.

But the move is also aimed at forcing Putin to slow down his advances in Ukraine by pulling back Russian forces to protect sovereign land.

Supported by swarms of drones, artillery and tanks, Ukrainian units have carved out a sliver of the world’s biggest nuclear power and have taken hundreds of Russian soldiers – mostly young conscripts – captive.

Up to 200,000 people have been evacuated in the border region (Picture: AFP)

Russia began evacuating thousands from the border regions today as battles raged about 11 miles inside Russia.

At least 20,000 residents in the district of Glushkov are being pulled out. Russian authorities have evacuated nearly 200,000 people following the attack so far.

It comes as Ukraine’s 1+1 TV channel published a video report Wednesday purportedly from Sudzha, a Russian town about six miles from the border.

Footage showed burnt-out columns of Russian military vehicles, and Ukrainian soldiers handing out humanitarian aid to local residents and removing Russian flags from an administrative building.

Overnight, Ukraine also targeted four military airfields, where fighter bombers, jets and other military aviation equipment were based.

In an update on Facebook, the defence ministry said it had struck the airfields of Khalino, Savasleyka, Borisoglebsk and Baltimore.

‘The main objects of damage were warehouses of fuel and lubricant materials and aviation means of damage,’ it said. 

‘The results of the attack are being clarified. Coordinated combat work of all components of the defence forces continues.’

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