Moscow/Lviv, Aug 15 (EFE).- The authorities of the Russian region of Kursk ordered the mandatory evacuation of all Gluskhovsky district residents on Thursday as Ukraine’s incursion into Russia deepened.
Regional acting governor Alexei Smirnov announced the evacuation on his Telegram channel, adding that the coordination of the process would be assisted by law enforcement agencies and the local administration.
Glushkovsky borders Ukraine, covering an area of 850 square kilometers and is one of Kursk’s 28 districts with a population of around 20,000.
In turn, the governor of the neighboring Russian region of Belgorod, Viacheslav Gladkov, also announced on Telegram that the Ministry of Emergency Situations raised the level of the regional state of emergency to federal level, which would free up additional resources for the region.
Gladkov also denounced that four civilians in Shebekino, bombed almost daily from Ukraine, were injured Thursday in a drone attack.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his overnight speech that the “advance in the Kursk region is going well” but that Kyiv needs to be allowed to attack Russia with long-range weapons.
“Our Ukrainian drones work exactly as they should. But there are things that cannot be done with drones alone,” Zelenskyy said.
“We need other weapons – missile weapons. And we continue working with our partners on long-range decisions for Ukraine – because these are forward-looking decisions for our victory.”
Ukraine has been banned from using long-range missiles provided by its allies against targets on Russian territory, despite repeated requests for the restrictions to be lifted.
“It has to be done. The bolder our partners’ decisions are, the less Putin will be able to do,” he said.
In his earlier speeches this week, Zelenskyy stressed the contrast between Russia’s ability to attack the entire Ukrainian territory, and the restrictions imposed by allies on Kyiv’s ability to strike beyond the areas immediately adjacent the shared border. EFE
mos-ra/tw