Refugees evacuated from Kursk Oblast will be resettled in the Russian-occupied territories in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Alexey Smirnov, the acting governor of the region, said on Aug. 13.
The Ukrainian military launched a surprise incursion across the border into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, bringing regular Ukrainian forces into Russia for the first time.
Although Moscow's reinforcements have begun to arrive on the battlefield, Ukraine has reportedly continued to advance farther into Kursk Oblast.
Yevhen Balytskyi, a Russian proxy leader operating in occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, suggested equipping "sanatoriums and boarding houses on the shores of the Azov Sea, located from Berdiansk to Kyrylivka," according to Smirnov.
The first flights will be crewed to send people to temporary accommodation centers in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and volunteers have arrived in Kursk Oblast to help residents, Smirnov added.
As of mid-2024, around 75% of the territory of the southern Ukrainian region is occupied by Russia, including major cities like Melitopol and Berdiansk, but not including the regional capital, Zaporizhzhia.
Russia's regional authorities said that Ukraine is in control of 28 settlements in Kursk Oblast as of Aug. 12, claiming that the incursion was up to 12 kilometers deep along a 40-kilometer front.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 12 that around 1,000 square kilometers in Kursk Oblast was under Ukrainian control.
Kyiv's forces have reportedly also entered Belgorod Oblast, supposedly displaying a Ukrainian flag in the village of Poroz in the Grayvoronsky border district, lying just south of the Krasnoyaruzhsky district.
Some 11,000 residents of the Krasnoyaruzhsky district in Russia's Belgorod Oblast had left their homes, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Aug. 13 amid Ukrainian cross-border incursions.
Elsa Court
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