Civilians evacuated from Kursk region border settlements following the invasion by Ukrainian forces in Kursk, Russia, 18 August 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/STRINGER
An official from Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that over 200,000 civilians in the country’s Kursk region were affected “to varying degrees” after Ukraine’s incursion into the southwestern region in August 2024.
Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said on Friday that 315 people had died, including 36 children, while another 926 people were injured, according to local media reports. In addition, more than 155,000 civilians had been evacuated from “unsafe zones”.
The diplomat added the large number of mines and unexploded ordnance left behind by the Armed Forces of Ukraine was making it more difficult to conclude the ongoing process of tallying casualties.
On Saturday, Alexander Khinshtein, the Kursk region’s acting governor, said that the whereabouts of 576 residents who had been registered as missing since the capture of the region by the Ukrainian military in August remained unknown. Four minors are among those not yet accounted for.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Kursk region in August 2024, where fighting continued until the Russian Defence Ministry reported that all Ukrainian units had been expelled from the region on 25 May. Two days earlier, Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian army had begun to create a “security zone” along the border between the two countries.
Since the end of May, Ukraine’s Sumy region, which directly borders the Kursk region, has seen a marked uptick in military activities, with Russian forces occupying four settlements on the border and intensifying shelling of the region. As a result, local authorities have ordered the mandatory evacuation of multiple settlements in proximity to the Russian border.
