Russia Relocates Evacuated Kursk Residents to Russian-Occupied Areas of Ukraine

Some of the evacuated residents from Russia’s Kursk region will be relocated to parts of the Zaporizhzhia region occupied by Russia. This was reported by the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexey Smirnov.

According to Smirnov, routes will soon be organized to transport Russians to temporary accommodation points in occupied Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia, and sanatoriums and guesthouses along the Azov Sea from Berdyansk to Kyrylivka might be used.

In the Kursk region, residents from five districts along the border with Ukraine, including Sudzhansky and Belovsky districts, are being evacuated. On August 13, Vladimir Zaytsev, head of the Bolshesoldatsky district, also reported on the evacuation. This district does not border Ukraine; to its north are the Lgovsky and Kurchatovsky districts.

“There has been no evacuation in our district until today. Everyone left on their own; no one interfered. Today, we are collecting data on those who still need evacuation. As of yesterday, there were no applications, although I understand that many people remain but do not want to leave,” Zaytsev wrote on his Telegram channel.

On August 12, Smirnov stated at a meeting that 180,000 residents of the Kursk region are subject to evacuation, with 121,000 having already been evacuated. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry reported on August 13 that over 2,000 people had left the border areas in the past 24 hours, and more than 8,000 people are currently in 120 temporary accommodation points.

On August 12, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, where he for the first time directly wrote that Ukraine is conducting an operation in the Kursk region of Russia.

Currently, about 1,000 km² of the territory of the Russian Federation is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.