Russians are re-learning that the pancake-flat steppe they share with Ukraine is a two-way street. For two and a half years,  Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled west, into Ukraine. Yesterday, Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles rolled east, into Russia.

Apparently this is the first time that the Ukrainian Army has invaded Russia. Three Russian exile military groups based in Ukraine are not claiming participation in the incursion. 

By nightfall, reports from the front indicated that the invaders advanced in two columns about 10 miles into Russia’s Kursk region. Russia claimed the “fighters” — as many as 300 — were from the Ukrainian Army’s 22nd Mechanized Brigade. Russia said they were backed by 11 tanks and more than 20 armored combat vehicles.

Drone videos from the area showed the burnt-out remains of a Russia Ka-52 ‘Alligator’ attack helicopter and of two burnt-out Soviet-era T-62 tanks, still standing on their truck trailers. Another video showed a column of a dozen captured Russian soldiers trudging down a country road.

A Russian motorist’s dashboard camera captured two Russian Su-25 “Frogfoot” ground attack jets swooping low to hit Ukrainian positions. From Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said: “Artillery fire, army aviation strikes and drone strikes are being inflicted on the enemy.” The ministry deleted an earlier account which said: “After suffering significant losses, the remnants of the sabotage group retreated to Ukrainian territory.”

As the day progressed Russian reports grew more pessimistic.

“The situation on the border is tense. There is fighting on the border. I ask you not to create panic,” the acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, appealed around noon. “We will all come to the rescue.”

In a video posted on Telegram, he implored residents: “I ask you to remain calm and not to be subject to the enemy’s information provocations. The situation is controllable.”

Later in the day, the governor posted on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone had hit a Russian ambulance near the district capital of Suzhda, wounding a doctor and killing the driver and a paramedic. Later, he posted that at least 20 civilians were wounded in the fighting. The night before the land attack, he said 26 Ukrainian drones hit his region.

At 10 p.m. local time, Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyaka posted: “The situation on the Kursk front is dire.” A native of Sumy, the Ukrainian region across the border, Mr. Podolyaka wrote: “The enemy has penetrated into the Sverdlikovo area and is expected to launch a stronger attack tomorrow morning.”

Now in self-exile in Russia, the blogger wrote of a geography he knows intimately: “The most dangerous situation is north of Sudzha, where Ukrainian forces are amassing and likely to attempt to enter the city. Intense fighting, artillery shelling, and drone attacks are anticipated. Residents in the area are urged to evacuate if possible, as the conflict will not end quickly.”

Over the last year, there have been two armed incursions into Russian territory by Russian exile groups based in Ukraine:  the Freedom for Russia Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion. Yesterday, their Telegram channels made no mention of taking part in the Kursk operation. 

Instead, the main group, the Freedom for Russia Legion, reported on its participation in fighting alongside Ukrainian troops in the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Vovchansk, about 150 miles southeast of Kursk region. In six months of see-saw fighting, Russian exiles first crossed into Russia’s Belgorod region in March, at the time of President Putin’s re-election. 

After the exiles retreated back into Ukraine, Russia invaded that section of Ukraine. They wanted to set up a “buffer” zone and to threaten Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. However, the offensive cost the Russian Army thousands of dead and wounded soldiers. Last week, President Zelensky talked to French reporters about the Russian’s “failure to capture Kharkiv, which we understand is no longer feasible.”

Now, the Russians are creating a “buffer” zone on their side of the border, in Belgorod region. Two weeks ago, Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced that civilians would be evacuated from 14 border districts. In a video on his Telegram channel, he said: “Entry will be permitted only for male adults with strict rules: in armored vehicles with military electronic equipment and in bullet-proof apparel and helmets, accompanied by servicemen or local officials.”

In Kursk, the region directly north of Belgorod, the goal of the invading Ukrainians may be similar: to create such insecurity that the Russian has to devote precious manpower to defend the border. Ukraine has no territorial claims on Russia.

For Russians, the news of fighting in Kursk stirs dark emotions. In the summer of 1943, the steppes 100 miles southeast of today’s fighting witnessed the largest tank battle in world history. Coming from the west, Nazi forces collided with the Soviet forces coming from the east. After six weeks of fighting, about 8,000 tanks were destroyed and as many as 1 million men were killed or wounded.