Desperate Putin sends Russian pensioners into the meatgrinder to stop Ukraine invasion

Russia is preparing to force into battle at least 500 recruits who have so far refused to fight, according to a Ukraine-aligned news agency.

In a post on the Telegram instant messaging app, Astra said: "Several hundred refuseniks from St Petersburg were forcibly put on a plane and taken to Kursk. The soldiers have already been issued with assault rifles and are about to be sent into battle.

"The day before, at least 500 people were taken from the military village of Kamenka near St Petersburg, where the 138th separate motorised rifle brigade is based and where several hundred men who refused to fight were kept. Their relatives told ASTRA about this."

At the same time, some of the “refuseniks" had already been prosecuted for desertion, they were under investigation, and some were still waiting for a military commission, Astra claimed.

It added: "Among those under arrest are men with health, physical and mental problems: 'They took a man with category "D", plus a man [just] under the age of 70 who can barely walk, another man without an eye…'."

Relatives claimed the men were yesterday put in trucks and taken to the military airfield under guard.

The first "party” of roughly 300 people was sent in "an unknown direction”, reported Astra.

The second group, consisting of about 150 people ended up at a military training ground four miles from Kursk by the following morning.

One of their wives said she was afraid they would be "will be thrown to the front line like meat, because they do not arrange anything, they do not say anything, everything is done quietly".

Another woman said: "In the morning, my son wrote that now we are being dressed, we will be given a machine gun, and most likely we will go into battle.

"If God forbid, an explosion happens to his head and he shoots someone, who will be to blame?"

Russia’s Belgorod border region declared an emergency Wednesday under heavy shelling by Ukrainian forces that are pressing a major cross-border incursion into the adjacent Kursk region for a second week.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the situation there as “extremely difficult and tense” as the attacks destroyed homes and caused civilian casualties, unnerving local people.

Children in particular are being moved to safety, he said on his Telegram channel, adding that about 5,000 children are in camps in safe areas. He said the previous day that around 11,000 people had fled their homes, with about 1,000 staying in temporary accommodation centres.

The surprise Ukrainian charge onto Russian soil which began August 6 has rattled the Kremlin.

The operation represents the largest attack on Russia since World War II and could involve as many as 10,000 Ukrainian troops backed by armour and artillery, military analysts say. An emergency was declared in Kursk last Saturday.

Pictures circulated yesterday showed Russian POWs apparently being transported across the border to Ukraine.