Kyiv to create ‘buffer zone’ in Kursk region, plans evacuation corridors

Senior Kyiv officials said on Wednesday Ukraine was creating a “buffer zone” in Russia’s Kursk region and plans to organise humanitarian assistance and evacuation corridors for civilians looking to go either to Russia or to Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with top officials to discuss the humanitarian situation and the possible establishment of military administrations in areas seized by Ukrainian forces in a cross-border assault that began on August 6. “Our military plan to … open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians: both in the direction of Russia and in the direction of Ukraine,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the messaging app Telegram.

Officials said Kyiv plans to arrange access for humanitarian organisations likely to include the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN. “In the ‘buffer zone’ food, medicine, and other items necessary for the civilian population should be provided,” Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram.