Ukrainian Commander Says Troops Continue To Advance In Russia's Kursk Region
According to RFE/RL, Ukraine's top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said on August 16 that Kyiv's forces continue to advance in the Kursk region.
"The troops of the offensive group continue to fight, they have advanced in some directions from 1 to 3 kilometers toward the enemy. In general, the situation is under control. All measures are being carried out according to the plan," he said in a briefing with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over video link.
Syrskiy reported fighting in the area of Malaya Loknya, some 11.5 kilometers from Ukrainian border.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian forces also destroyed a key bridge in the Kursk region on August 16, pro-Kremlin media outlets report. According to Russian security officials, the destruction of the bridge cut off part of a local district making it more difficult for civilian evacuation out of the region.
Ukrainian troops launched the cross-border incursion on August 6 in an apparent attempt to divert the Russian military forces away from the front line. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned on August 15 that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region of Ukraine were "facing the most intense Russian assaults."
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military, reporting on the situation within Ukraine, said the number of clashes on the front increased to 99 by the end of the day on August 16, and many of them were in the Pokrovsk area.
Military authorities in the city of Pokrovsk urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because Russian troops are "advancing at a fast pace." They said on Telegram that with every passing day "there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions.”
Ukrainian forces fought battles in other areas, including Kupyansk, Kramatorsk, and Siverskiy, the General Staff said.
In addition to Pokrovsk, the enemy attacked in nine other areas, including in Kharkiv, the General Staff said, noting that some battles there also were ongoing.
Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on August 16 that Kyiv will not create special camps for Russian civilians who want to evacuate amid an ongoing incursion in Russia's Kursk and Belgorod regions.
The Ukrainian government said its advance was meant to establish a "security zone" inside Russia to put an end to incessant strikes by the Russian military from the two regions bordering Ukraine targeting civilian and infrastructure facilities.
Lubinets said that he did not envisage any threats to the security of the civilian population from the Russian region on the territory of Ukraine and that he thinks the number of civilians willing to evacuate to Ukraine will be limited.
"We do not expect that there will be a large number of people willing to come to us, if any. But I am definitely not worried about the fact that it will be dangerous for the civilian population from Kursk region.... We have offered each and every resident of Kursk the option to evacuate from this territory if they wish," Lubinets said.
