Ukraine updates: Russia says 76,000 evacuated from Kursk

During his evening address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to the Ukrainian incursion into Russia's border region of Kursk.

"Today, Commander-in-Chief Syrsyki has already reported several times – on the frontline situation and our actions to push the war out into the aggressor's territory," Zelenskyy said. He expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian miltiary for its efforts.

"Ukraine is proving that it really knows how to restore justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed – pressure on the aggressor," Zelenskyy said.  

Russia on Saturday said over 76,000 residents in the western parts of Kursk bordering Ukraine have been evacuated so far this week. 

"More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places," the state-run TASS news agency quoted an official from the regional emergency situations ministry as saying at a press briefing on Saturday.

Ukrainian forces began an incursion on Tuesday into the Kursk region in a surprise attack.

The fighting, which has caught Russia off guard, now persists into a fifth day.    

Ukraine has said it hit a gas rig operated by Russian forces in the Black Sea.

Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told the Ukrainska Pravda news site that there were no civilians on the platform and that it was out of operation.

Pletenchuk said that Russian forces gathered equipment and personnel at the gas rig and aimed to use it to jam satellite navigation signals and disrupt civilian shipping, including Ukrainian grain exports.

The RBK-Ukraine news agency reported that the ship was holding 40 Russian military personnel at the time of the Ukrainian strike.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk believed 10 Ukrainian drones entered Belarusian airspace.

He was cited by state news agency Belta as saying Belarus shot down several of the Ukrainian objects.

"The Ukrainian armed forces violated all rules of behavior and violated the airspace of the Republic of Belarus," he said, adding that the incident occurred on Friday evening.

He said that Belarusian authorities suspected that the objects, which reportedly entered through the eastern Kastsyukovichy area, were Ukrainian "combat drones."

The information could not be independently verified.

The statements come as Ukrainian forces continue their incursion into Russian border regions.

Minsk is an ally of Moscow, which used Belarus as a staging ground for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia announced that it had launched a "counter-terror operation" in areas bordering Ukraine to halt the advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory.

Security forces and the military are given enhanced emergency powers during "counter-terror operations," allowing them to relocate residents, control phone communications and requisition vehicles.

Russia's army claimed that Kyiv initially dispatched 1,000 troops and more than two dozen armored combat vehicles and tanks. The figures could not be independently verified.

The Russian Defense Ministry said fighting was continuing in the Kursk region and that the army had conducted airstrikes against Ukrainian forces.

Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom said that Ukraine's incursion into the Kursk region poses a "direct threat" to the region's nuclear power plant.

"The actions of the Ukrainian army created a direct threat not only to the Kursk nuclear power plant, but to the entire nuclear energy industry," Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev was cited by Russian state news agency RIA as saying.

He made the comments during a call with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IARA), Rafael Grossi.

"At the moment there is a real danger of strikes and provocations by the Ukrainian army," Rosatom said in a separate statement.

At least 16,000 civilians have been evacuated from border areas due to the Ukrainian incursion.

Similar accusations have been made against Russian forces who are occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest in Europe.

A Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Lipetsk killed one civilian, the regional government said on Saturday.

Lipetsk is located 300 kilometers (around 185 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Governor Igor Artamonov said Russian air defense intercepted 19 Ukrainian drones overnight, in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The Russian Defense Ministry also reported the interception of 32 drones: 26 in the Kursk region and six in Yaroslavl.

Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev no damage or casualties were reported from the attack.

Russia imposed anti-terrorism measures in the Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod regions, Moscow's anti-terrorism committee said late on Friday, according to Russian news agencies.

The move, according to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, is aimed at countering Ukraine's "unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in a number of regions."

Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB intelligence service took the decision "in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the enemy's sabotage groups," the committee said.

Measures included potentially moving residents, transport restrictions, enhanced security, and wiretapping.

Meanwhile, Russia was reinforcing its southern Kursk region with additional tanks, artillery, and rocket systems as it faced a surprising Ukrainian incursion.

IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, called for restraint from Ukraine and Russia on Friday as fighting intensified in Russia's Kursk region, home to one of the country's largest nuclear power stations.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said "maximum restraint" was needed to prevent a nuclear disaster amid the ongoing conflict near the Kursk nuclear plant.

"I would like to appeal to all sides to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences," Grossi said in a statement released by the IAEA.

"I am personally in contact with the relevant authorities of both countries and will continue to be seized of the matter."

According to Russian media, Moscow's diplomatic mission in Vienna informed the IAEA that fragments, possibly from downed missiles, were found at the plant, though there was no evidence of a direct attack.

Meanwhile, the state nuclear energy company Rosatom said the Kursk nuclear plant was operating normally on Saturday.

There have been reports of fierce fighting, deaths and casualties in the Russian territory of Kursk.

Ukrainian troops had advanced as far as 35 kilometers (21 miles) into the region, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War, although, they reportedly do not have full control of the area.

ss/ab (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)