Ukraine Offers To Take in Russian Refugees Fleeing From Kursk

Ukraine has offered to help Russians evacuating from the country's embattled border regions, which have been embroiled in armed hostilities since Kyiv's surprise incursion onto Russian soil began last week.

In a Telegram post on Wednesday evening, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said: "Due to the possible deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the adjacent territories of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, Ukraine must be ready to receive Russian refugees."

Vereshchuk, who also serves as minister of reintegration for the areas under Russian occupation, announced that her ministry had opened a "24-hour hotline" for residents of Kursk "who need humanitarian aid or want to evacuate to Ukraine."

The deputy PM, who highlighted that her post was written in Russian so that it could be understood by the Kursk residents, included a phone number and email address for those seeking assistance.

"Ukraine complies with all norms of international humanitarian law," Vereshchuk added. "We will provide the civilians of the Kursk region with the necessary protection and humanitarian support."

On Thursday, Vereshchuk again took to Telegram to announced that Ukraine was attempting to establish a demilitarized route for the safe transit of Russian refugees to Ukraine from Kursk.

"We are currently working with the military on a possible route of a humanitarian corridor for civilians from Kurshchyna to Sumy," she wrote, using the Ukrainian spelling of the Kursk region.

The deputy PM said that setting up this corridor would require the assent and "an official request from the Russian side," but that, "so far, no such request has been received."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment on Vereshchuk's offer, and to inquire whether it intends to request that Ukraine establish this corridor.

Thousands of Russians have been evacuated from both Kursk and the surrounding regions, as armed clashes intensify across southwestern Russia following Ukraine's unexpected cross-border raid.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv's forces were now in control of over 70 settlements in Russian territory, and that "hundreds of Russian servicemen" had been captured, adding to the country's prisoner-of-war "exchange fund."

On Thursday, however, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces "continue to repel" the Ukrainian advance, and that Kyiv had lost some 2,600 troops since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk.

On Monday, Kursk's acting Governor Aleksei Smirnov said that 12 civilians had been killed in the region since the beginning of the incursion, with a further 121 injured.

As a result, Russian officials said that around 200,000 people have been evacuated from the border regions, and on Friday declared a "federal-level emergency" in Kursk.

The neighboring region of Belgorod followed suit on Wednesday, declaring a state of emergency and evacuating around 11,000 people from the oblast.

Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.