Ukraine’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on Thursday that Kiev had set up a military command post in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region, where he said his forces were still advancing and had taken up to 1.5 km in the past 24 hours, Reuters quoted him as saying.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Sirsky reported to President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video released by the Ukrainian leader that Kiev forces had advanced 35km into the Kursk region after invading the Russian region last week.
Kiev’s assault on Russian territory last week surprised Moscow, taking the initiative away from Russian forces who have been making small but steady gains in eastern Ukraine all year.
Sirsky said Ukrainian forces took control of 82 settlements during the incursion and an area of 1,150 square kilometers.
He announced that he was appointing Major General Eduard Moskalev as the head of the military commandant in the Kiev-controlled part of western Russia.
“We are moving forward in the Kursk region. A military commandant’s office has been established, which must ensure order and also all the needs of the local population,” Sirski said in a written statement on his Telegram channel.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Verechuk said on Wednesday that the Defense Forces plan to form a “security zone” in the Kursk region, where the offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces is taking place.
According to Verechuk, quoted by Ukrainian media, the “security zone” includes conducting humanitarian operations to support the civilian population in the zone, opening humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians to both Russia and Ukraine, and admitting international humanitarian organizations in this area.
Ukrainian special forces said they captured a group of more than 100 Russian soldiers on Wednesday, including from the elite Chechen Akhmat formation, who were part of the 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said this week that he had held talks with his Russian counterpart about exchanging prisoners of war taken in the Kursk region.
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