Russian authorities have ordered the evacuation of “multiple” villages that border Ukraine in the Kursk region, a local governor said on Monday. The news comes as Moscow says its forces have wrested two more villages in the region out of Kyiv’s control. Ukraine’s foreign ministry has invited the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to Kursk to carry out humanitarian work and verify the country is respecting international law amid its incursion there.
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‘Obligatory evacuation’
Russia is evacuating some villages in the Kursk region close to the Ukrainian border, governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
Authorities have decided to order the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15-kilometre zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine”, he wrote.
He did not say which villages would be evacuated or the number of evacuees. There are dozens of villages and towns within the 15-kilometre area.
More than 150,000 people in the Kursk region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s cross-border offensive began on August 6, state media reported Smirnov as saying last week.
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Moscow says its forces have recaptured two villages
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday its forces had recaptured two villages in Kursk, Uspenovka and Borki. The report could not be independently verified.
Russia in all says it has retaken at least a dozen settlements from Ukrainian control since Kyiv’s incursion began.
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Kyiv invites UN and Red Cross ‘to ensure basic human rights’
Ukraine has invited the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv claims to have taken control of around 100 settlements.
In a written statement, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said invitations had been issued to the ICRC and the UN, "taking into account the humanitarian situation and the need to properly ensure basic human rights in the territory of the Kursk region".
The ministry said it had asked the ICRC to monitor Ukraine's compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, which cover the protection of victims of international armed conflicts.
It was not immediately clear how or whether the UN or ICRC had responded.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
