Russian authorities announced Tuesday that they will help move people displaced from their homes in the Kursk region amid ongoing fighting to parts of occupied eastern Ukraine.Acting Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov said he was working in coordination with Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed head of Ukraines Zaporizhzhia region, to accommodate evacuees in resorts and health spas near the Azov Sea.The first groups of evacuees will be transported to temporary accommodations in the Zaporizhzhia region in the near future, Smirnov wrote on Telegram.Russia annexed the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk after widely disputed referendums in September 2022.
However, Russian forces do not fully control all the territories that Moscow claims as its own.Kursk is located approximately 550 kilometers (341 miles) north of the Zaporizhzhia towns of Berdyansk and Kyrylivka, where Smirnov said Balitsky had offered to house the evacuees.According to Smirnov, more than 120,000 people have been evacuated since Ukrainian troops stormed across the Russian border last Tuesday and advanced deeper into the Kursk region.Since the incursion, Smirnov has frequently shared messages of support from leaders of other Russian regions.The investigative news outlet Vyorstka,citing anonymous sources, reported last week that the Kremlin had instructed regional governors to publicly highlight their efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the Kursk region and accommodate evacuees.