Russia says more than 30,000 evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine

Some 30,415 people including nearly 8,000 children have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine due to shelling and attacks, Russia’s human rights commissioner said in remarks published on Monday.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the commissioner, told news outlet Argumenty I Fakty in an interview that the evacuees have been placed in nearly 1,000 temporary accommodation centers across Russia.

Ukraine, subjected to an invasion from Russia since February 2022, has retaliated with shelling and other attacks on Russia’s border regions, with the military saying the strikes target infrastructure key to Moscow’s war effort.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, taking control of dozens of settlements and holding most positions since.

Moskalkova said she had received appeals regarding more than 1,000 Russian citizens from Kursk, whose whereabouts are unknown and who were said to have been taken by Ukrainian forces.

Reuters could not independently verify Moskalkova’s reports. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Both sides deny targeting or imprisoning civilians but thousands have died in the war, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.

Moskalkova also told the news outlet that she has visited more than 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia and that similar visits with Russian prisoners have been conducted by her counterpart in Ukraine.