UKRAINE HAS SAID it will allow the evacuation of civilians from Russia’s Kursk region into Russia and Ukraine and create a buffer zone in the area where its troops launched a major offensive.
Catching Russian troops by surprise, the Ukrainian army entered the Kursk region on 6 August, capturing dozens of settlements in the biggest offensive by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.
Tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated on both sides of the border.
“The creation of a buffer zone in the Kursk region is a step to protect our border communities from daily hostile shelling,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.
Ukrainian officials have said the Kursk offensive was an act of self-defence against Russian troops, whose full-scale invasion stretches into its third year.
Klymenko made the announcement after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials.
“Our military forces plan to… open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians: both in the direction of Russia and of Ukraine,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said after the meeting.
She also said there were plans for humanitarian operations, including with the help of international organisations, in the area.
Ukrainian rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Ukrainian officials had “discussed access for representatives of the ICRC, the UN and other impartial international organisations to carry out humanitarian activities”.
It comes as Zelenskyy said his troops are “moving further” into Russia.
“In the Kursk region, we are moving further. From one to two kilometres (0.6-1.2 miles) in different areas since the beginning of the day,” he said on social media.
The neighbouring Russian region of Belgorod declared its own state of emergency, as the governor warned the situation was “extremely difficult” due to Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks.
Citizens of Belgorod, a city situated on the Russian border with Ukraine and approximately 150 kilometres away from the Kursk region, were told at 2am (Irish time) to take shelter after a drone attack hit the town.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are yet to confirm whether it has conducted a military operation in the area.
In a message on Telegram, the Governor said: “In order to protect the population and in order to provide additional measures of support for the victims, I am declaring an emergency at the regional level, followed by an appeal to the government commission with a request to declare an emergency at the federal level.”
A gas supply was destroyed and one apartment building partially collapsed after “several” drone attacks on the city of Shebekino overnight, according to Gladkov. Another home was destroyed in the Ustinka town, he added.
“The city of Shebekino was attacked by drones from the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Gladkov said in a post to Telegram this morning.
He said that a driver of a tractor which was attacked during the offensive was injured and the man is in a serious condition in hospital.
An AFP analysis of data provided by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicated Ukrainian troops had advanced over an area of at least 800 square kilometres of Russia as of Monday.
Russia said it had repelled Ukrainian attempts to push further into five areas of Kursk.
“The attempts by enemy mobile units using armoured equipment to break through deeper into Russian territory have been repelled,” its defence ministry said.
Ukraine said Tuesday it would not hold on to Russian land it captured and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed a “just peace”.
“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace… the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop,” foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said.
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday the incursion had given Russian President Vladimir Putin a “real dilemma”.
More than 120,000 Russians have fled their homes in Kursk’s border areas.
Ukraine said it would “open humanitarian corridors” for civilians in the captured territory so they can evacuate towards Russia or Ukraine.
It also said it would let “international humanitarian organisations” into the area.
Footage from Ukrainian TSN news, purportedly taken inside the Kursk town of Sudzha showed Ukrainian soldiers climbing atop a building and removing a Russian flag, shouting “Glory to Ukraine!”.
Russians in Moscow told AFP they were concerned by Ukraine’s operation, which caught the Kremlin off guard.
“I have relatives living there and they refuse to leave. It’s really hard,” said salesperson Yulia Rusakova.
“This whole situation is a big blow. It’s very hard to lead a normal, calm life, knowing that such things are happening there,” she said.
Olga Raznoglazova, a 36-year-old account manager visiting from the Kursk region, said she felt the operation had brought the war closer.
“Now, when it is happening right next door to us… it is a completely different feeling,” she said. “It’s very worrying.”
Putin has vowed to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops from Russian territory, accusing the neighbour of using the operation to “improve its negotiating position” in any future talks.
Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured territory in southern and eastern Ukraine and subjected Ukrainian cities to missile and drone barrages.
After re-capturing some lost territory in 2022, a long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive last year largely petered out.
With reporting from David Mac Redmond and © AFP 2024
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