A Ukrainian serviceman patrols Ukrainian-occupied Sudzha, in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region, 21 August 2024 Photo: EPA-EFE
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of refusing to permit the evacuation of civilians from the Ukrainian-occupied city of Sudzha in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region, BBC News Russian reported on Wednesday.
Around 200 people whose relatives did not flee Sudzha or other nearby villages following their capture by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in August appealed to the governments of Russia and Ukraine to open a humanitarian corridor to allow the evacuation of civilians, according to BBC News Russian.
In its official response published by BBC News Russian on Wednesday, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that no safe corridors had been opened between Russia and Ukraine as Kyiv was “not engaging in dialogue” on the subject and Russia was unable to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Sudzha unilaterally.
The office of Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner said that Russia was “refusing to provide” a humanitarian corridor for civilians in the region and had “not engaged” either with Kyiv or international organisations on the issue. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, he said, had approached both the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross for their assistance with the matter.
The report came as authorities in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region announced the mandatory evacuation of civilians from the frontline city of Kupiansk amid intensified Russian attacks.
On Monday, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said that over 112,000 people had been evacuated from the Kursk region as a whole since the AFU began its military incursion into the area on 6 August and that another 1,000 had been “forcibly removed” by Ukrainian forces.
In August, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for the Reintegration of Temporary Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk announced the launch of a telephone hotline for Kursk region residents wishing to leave the area and said that humanitarian corridors would be provided to ensure their safe evacuation either to Russia or Ukraine.
