Russia to evacuate thousands more from Kursk region as Ukraine cross-border invasion advances

Photo: Ukraine advances troops along ‘dormant front’ in border security operation

Authorities in Russia’s Kursk region have decided to evacuate the population of its Glushkov district, acting governor Alexei Smirnov said late on Wednesday, amid the continued advance of Ukrainian forces into the border region.

The district directly borders Ukraine and has a population of about 20,000 people and Smirnov said on the Telegram messaging app that police and other state bodies would coordinate the evacuation process.

Ukrainian forces continued a major cross-border advance into Russia’s Kursk region Wednesday, claiming that they captured more prisoners and destroyed a bomber in attacks on military airfields. (Scripps News)

Ukraine said on Wednesday its cross-border invasion had advanced one to two kilometres into the Kursk region since the start of the day and that its troops had finished clearing the Russian border town of Sudzha of Moscow’s forces.

Ukrainian troops also took more than 100 Russian soldiers prisoner, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, in a video posted on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel said. Zelenskyy said they would eventually be swapped for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Additionally, the troops destroyed a Russian Su-34 jet used to launch devastating glide bombs at Ukrainian front-line positions and cities, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

The surprise Ukrainian push into the Kursk region that began Aug. 6 has rattled the Kremlin. The daring operation is the largest attack on Russia since World War II and could involve as many as 10,000 Ukrainian troops backed by armor and artillery, military analysts say.

Syrskyi claims Ukrainian forces have advanced into about 390 square miles of the Kursk region, though it was not possible to independently verify that claim.

If true and if Ukraine actually controls all of that territory in the Kursk region, it would have captured in just one week almost as much land as Russian forces took — 450 square miles — between January and July this year, according to calculations by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Russian officials have said that nearly 200,000 people were being evacuated following the attack.

Reuters/ WPTV