Some residents in a Russian border town are fearing an invasion because Ukraine's latest counteroffensive has been so successful: report

• Russians in the town of Belgorod are fearful of where the war with Ukraine may head.
• Some residents told The New York Times that they are concerned that Ukrainian troops could invade Russia.

Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian invaders so deeply back into their own territory that some Russian residents in a town 25 miles from Ukraine are worried about how far Ukrainian troops might advance.

Residents in the border town of Belgorod, Russia told The New York Times that as the war has raged on across the border, their lives have changed drastically and that they fear an imminent Ukrainian invasion after a series of Russian military setbacks over the last few weeks.

"It is as if they are already here," one woman in the town's central market told The Times over the sound of close-by explosions. Another resident said that "rumors" are swirling of Ukrainian troops crossing the border for the first time during the war.

"There are so many rumors, people are afraid," Maksim, who sells military and outdoor gear at the market, told The Times. His clientele has shifted from fishermen and hunters to soldiers, he added.

Others are digging bomb shelters and adapting to the daily reality of evacuation drills and missiles being intercepted overhead.

"We feel scared, and it is especially hard when you work with children," kindergarten teacher Ekaterina told the Times. "The children start running around screaming 'missiles' but we tell them it is just thunder."

In the last weeks, Russia has suffered heavy defeats after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast, where troops regained thousands of square miles of territory from Russia, including areas of Kharkiv, near Belgorod.