Residents of the Kursk region are being evacuated to occupied Berdiansk

Residents of the border areas of the Russian Kursk region will be accommodated in sanatoriums and boarding houses in the occupied part of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region, in particular, in Berdiansk. According to Russian propaganda media, more than 120,000 Russians have been evacuated, Berdiansk24 reported.

“Soon, the first buses will be full to deliver people to the temporary accommodation centres in the Zaporozhye region. Also, Zaporozhye volunteers have arrived in the Kursk region to assist residents here,” said the acting governor of the Kursk region Alexey Smirnov.

The occupation authorities of the Zaporizhzhia region use the events in Kursk in their propaganda. In the occupied territories, including Berdiansk, they are collecting humanitarian aid, allegedly for the affected residents of the Kursk region. Locals are involved in the collection.

According to the National Resistance Center of Ukraine, part of the humanitarian aid sent by Russians to the Kursk region was intended for residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine. 

“The Russians are massively transferring humanitarian supplies intended for the temporarily occupied territories to the Kursk region. As a result, all humanitarian supplies were redirected to the Kursk region. This is being presented as an initiative of the population of the temporarily occupied territories, while the locals are currently being denied the aid,” the NRC noted.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine invaded the Russian Kursk region on 6 August 2024. Russia, in turn, intensified shelling and bombing of Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Kursk. The Ukrainian government had to evacuate residents of Sumy region settlements along the border.

Russia recognised that the Ukrainian armed forces control 28 settlements in the Kursk region. According to the Ukrainian side, there are more than 40 such settlements.