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Ukrainian soldiers are providing humanitarian aid to Russian civilians in Kursk, a report said.
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They are providing 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 invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, Ukrainian soldiers appear to be primarily interested in helping Russian civilians, a stark contrast to the actions of some Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Since the surprise attack on August 6, Ukraine says its forces have taken control 74 settlements in the Russian border region starting Tuesday, seizing about 386 square miles of territory.
That is almost as much territory as Moscow’s arduous advance has ever achieved. taken in Ukraine so far in 2024.
Experts at the think tank Institute for the Study of War are now estimation that Ukrainian troops were active in or near 41 settlements in Kursk on Tuesday.
But instead of attacking civilians and infrastructure, as Russia has done in Ukraine over the past two and a half years, Ukraine is providing aid and assistance to Russian citizens, reports and Ukrainian officials said.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian daily TSN reported reported that Ukrainian troops had started providing humanitarian aid to the local population in the city of Suja in Kursk Oblast.
A soldier told the program that Ukrainian forces have provided civilians with water, canned food, cookies and other supplies, according to a translation by Ukrainian Pravda.
Wednesday Ukraine said It had opened a 24-hour hotline for humanitarian assistance and evacuation to Ukraine for residents of Kursk through the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories.
In a Facebook after On Wednesday, the head of the ministry, Irina Vereshchuk, said that the Ukrainian armed forces planned to carry out humanitarian operations to support civilians and open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians – both towards Russia and Ukraine – with the assistance of international humanitarian organizations.
Vereshchuk repeated the same message on Facebook after written in Russian — to make it clearer for Russians, she said — adding that the humanitarian assistance and evacuation of Russian refugees were carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law.
After Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, its forces were accused of random attacks in civilian areas, where repeatedly energy infrastructureand looting civilian areas.
Last year, Human Rights Watch said Russia appears 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 troops follows a meeting held on Wednesday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior officials to discuss security, humanitarian aid and the possible establishment of military command offices in the Russian region.
This was written by Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko in a Telegram after On Wednesday, he said his ministry is working with the Ukrainian armed forces and other agencies to provide assistance to Russian residents in the Kursk region.
“The creation of a buffer zone in the Kursk region is a step towards protecting our border communities from daily hostile shelling,” he added.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights, made a similar comment in a Facebook post after on wednesday.
He said the Ukrainian armed forces had established a “buffer zone” in the Kursk region for “self-defense purposes”.
Lubinets added that the area “must be supplied with food, medicine and other goods needed by citizens.”
Read the original article at Company Insider
