San Francisco Frontiers - 'I'm alive': Russian Kursk evacuees reunite with families

She had not spoken to him in the seven months that she was trapped by Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region -- more than half a year cut off from the outside world.

Shkuratova was on a Russian evacuation bus after Moscow's forces took back her village of Goncharovka and much of the land Ukrainian forces had seized in a riposte against Russia's three-year military campaign in Ukraine.

Just last week, the 62-year-old had to bury her husband in the couple's garden.

He was killed in a strike during fierce fighting that ensued when Russian troops begun ousting Ukrainian troops from the border area.

"I'm alive! I love you!", she shouted down the phone to her son, who lives more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away in a region north of Moscow.

A volunteer came to calm her down.

since last week, Russia has moved several hundred civilians from zones it has recaptured from Ukraine in the Kursk region to safer areas east of the main town, Sudzha.

Shkuratova's husband, a vet called Nikolai, was killed in a strike on Wednesday.

"A shell hit. Everything was blown apart in a second. No house, no garage, no barn.

"Grandpa (her husband) was crushed by the garage," she told AFP, clutching her purple coat and shaking.

She buried him in their garden with the help of a neighbour, who now sat behind her on the evacuation bus.

"We washed him, covered him in a blanket, men dug out a hole and we put him there," Shkuratova said.

"During that time there was shooting."

- 'They pumped water for us' -

Her neighbour, retired medic Tatiana Shapovalova, said the villagers were treated well by Ukrainian troops.

"We did not meet any scoundrels" the white-haired 71-year-old told AFP. "Quite the opposite."

"They were fixing things, cooking... We had a well but we could not pump water and they pumped water for us with their generator," she said.

The women were taken with around 10 other evacuees from the side of a road near the black-earth fields for which the region is renowned.

They were not allowed to disclose the exact location for safety reasons, said a representative of Russia's emergency ministry.

Russian military police armed with Kalashnikovs kept a watchful eye on proceedings.

Military trucks zoomed past, decorated with the "Z" or "V" symbols of Moscow's forces in Ukraine.

Soldiers filled a nearby petrol station, smoking cigarettes and eating hot dogs.

- 'It is just trashed' -

Viktor Vodyannikov, who was being evacuated from Sudzha, was visibly devastated.

The bespectacled architect had designed buildings in Sudzha, which had a population of around 6,000 before fighting erupted and it was bombarded.

His life's work now lies in ruins.

"It was a good little town... All my projects there are destroyed," he said, slapping his knee and shaking his black bereted head.

"It is just trashed. There is rubbish everywhere."

Images of Sudzha released by Russia after battles to retake it show rows of houses destroyed and a town centre badly damaged, with rubble littering the streets.

The Kremlin has presented Moscow's fast military offensive in the area as a major success.

The fact that no civilian corridor was created in the Kursk region sparked anger towards the authorities, mostly from relatives of those trapped.

As she stepped off an evacuation bus, a woman called Tatiana fell into her sister-in-law's arms, both of them sobbing.

After three years of conflict -- which the Kremlin had said would not affect life back home -- many in the Kursk region are placing their hopes in moves by US President Donald Trump, who has said he can end the fighting.

"Peace agreements and peace negotiations," said Yelena Sukhareva, a volunteer from the city of Kursk helping the civilian evacuate.

"This is the only solution."

G.Allen--SFF