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Ukrainian soldiers are providing humanitarian aid to Russian civilians in Kursk, per a report.
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They are giving water and food, and setting up evacuation corridors, Ukrainian officials said.
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This is in stark contrast to Russian actions in occupied Ukraine.
As Ukraine enters the second week of its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its soldiers are seemingly making a point of trying to help Russian civilians, in stark contrast to some of the actions of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Since its surprise attack on August 6, Ukraine says its forces have taken control of 74 settlements in the Russian border region as of Tuesday, seizing about 386 square miles of territory.
That is almost as much territory as Moscow’s grinding advances have taken in Ukraine so far in 2024.
Experts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, meanwhile, estimate that Ukrainian forces were operating in or near about 41 settlements in Kursk as of Tuesday.
But instead of targeting civilians and infrastructure like Russia has in Ukraine over the past two and a half years, Ukraine is providing aid and relief to Russian civilians, according to reports and Ukrainian officials.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian daily news program TSN reported that Ukrainian troops had started providing humanitarian aid to locals in the city of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast.
One soldier told the program that the Ukrainian armed forces have given civilians water, canned goods, biscuits, and other necessities, per a translation by Ukrainska Pravda.
On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had launched a 24-hour hotline for humanitarian aid and evacuation to Ukraine for Kursk residents through its Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the ministry head, Irina Vereshchuk, said the Ukrainian armed forces were planning to conduct humanitarian operations to support civilians and open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians — both toward Russia and Ukraine — with the help of international humanitarian organizations.
Vereshchuk repeated the same message in a Facebook post written in Russian — to make it clearer to Russians, she said — adding that the humanitarian effort and evacuation of Russian refugees were carried out in compliance with international humanitarian law.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, its forces were accused of launching indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, repeatedly targeting energy infrastructure, and looting civilian areas.
Last year, Human Rights Watch said Russia appeared to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, summary executions, and enforced disappearances.
The delivery of humanitarian aid to Russians in areas now occupied by Ukrainian forces follows a meeting held on Wednesday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other high-ranking officials to discuss security, humanitarian aid, and the potential establishment of military commandants’ offices in the Russian region.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote in a Telegram post on Wednesday that his ministry was working with the Ukrainian armed forces and other agencies to deliver aid to Russian residents in the Kursk region.
“The creation of a buffer zone in the Kursk region is a step to protect our border communities from daily hostile shelling,” he added.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, made a similar comment in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
He said Ukrainian forces had established a “buffer zone” in the Kursk region for “self-defense purposes.”
Lubinets added that the area “should be provided with food, medicine, and other items needed by the civilians.”
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