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After capturing dozens of villages in Russia’s Kursk province, Ukraine has expanded the invasion into neighbouring province of Belgorod read more
 "Ukraine explains idea behind incursion into Russia's Kursk")
Ukraine has captured nearly 1,000 square kilometres of land in Russia's Kursk (Representative Photo, Credit: AP)
As Ukraine continues to make gains in incursions into Russia, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko has said the idea is to create a buffer between Ukraine’s border regions and Russian territories.
As Ukraine framed the incursions into Russia’s border regions as an exercise of self-defence, Klymenko said that the intention was to deny Russia the usage of the territories to shell the Ukrainian border communities.
“The creation of a buffer zone in the Kursk region is a step to protect our border communities from daily hostile shelling,” said Klymenko, according to AFP.
Klymenko further said that Ukraine would allow the evacuation of civilians from Kursk. Separately, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials that Ukraine planned to open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.
The comments come as Ukraine has claimed to have controlled as many as 74 settlements, comprising villages or hamlets, in the Kursk province of Russia. Even as Ukrainian forces continue to make gains in Kursk, they have expanded the invasion into neighbouring province of Belgorod where the regional governor has announced an emergency.
The ongoing offensive in the Russian border regions, which began on August 6 and took the Russians by surprise, is the first time Ukraine has attacked Russia and captured its territory. A Ukrainian commander earlier told i newspaper that the incursion was the only way to ease the pressure on Ukrainian forces in other theatres of the war, particularly in the northeastern Ukraine where Russia had made a string a series of victories in recent months.
In the eight days since invading Russia, Ukraine has claimed to have captured nearly 1,000 square kilometres of territory. In latest remarks, Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi has said that the search and destroy mission in the Sudzha city of Kursk is complete, indicating that the Ukrainian forces are in complete control of the city.
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