As Kyiv makes gains in Kursk, Russia strikes back in Donetsk

KYIV — Russia is evacuating another district in its Kursk region, the regional governor announced overnight, as Ukraine’s forces continue to make gains in the area.
Ukrainian forces have secured their hold on Sudzha, the administrative center of the Sudzhansky district in Kursk, and advanced several kilometers further into Russian territory. Overnight, acting regional Governor Alexei Smirnov said in a Telegram statement that the Glushkovsky district in Kursk, which has a population of 20,000, was being evacuated.
Kyiv forces took six more settlements in Russia over the past day. Ukraine currently controls more than 80 settlements in Kursk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. Kyiv currently controls 1,152  square kilometers of Russian territory, Ukrainian Army Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi added at a defense staff meeting with government officials.
Ukraine captured 102 Russian soldiers in the Kursk region on Wednesday — a record number for a single day, a high-ranking official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) who was granted anonymity to share the update, told POLITICO.
Kyiv has yet to reveal the total number of POWs it claims to have taken over the course of its more than weeklong incursion into Russian territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that capturing Russian troops was one of the key goals of the operation, in order to replenish what he refers to as the POW “exchange fund.”
Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Wednesday during a national fundraising telethon that while Russia has publicly ruled out prisoner exchanges, Moscow’s ombudsman had suggested an informational discussion on the topic. “I hope this situation [in Kursk] will change their stance on blocking the POW exchange. At least now, they initiate talks,” Lubinets said.
Kyiv is now considering establishing military command offices in the Kursk region in order to evacuate civilians safely and allow humanitarian supplies through, Zelenskyy said during a meeting of the government on Wednesday afternoon.
Lubinets underscored that message, saying during the telethon that humanitarian corridors would allow international organizations to monitor the situation on the ground in Ukrainian-controlled parts of Russia. Kyiv’s forces are already providing humanitarian aid to civilians in territories they control and act in accordance with international law, Lubinets added.
Ukraine is also now preparing to accept refugees from Russia’s Kursk region, Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy prime minister of Ukraine, said in a statement announced on Telegram Thursday.
“We are currently working with the military on a possible humanitarian corridor route for civilians from the Kursk to Sumy” in Ukraine, Vereshchuk wrote. 
But while the successes of the surprise Kursk operation have boosted Kyiv’s morale, Russian forces are striking back, capturing more territory around Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Since Ukraine launched the Kursk offensive, “I would say things have become worse in our part of the front,” said Ivan Sekach, spokesperson of Ukraine’s 110th Mechanized Brigade, which is currently deployed in the Pokrovsk district in the Donetsk region. “We have been getting even less ammo than before and Russians are pushing,” he told POLITICO.
Over the past 24 hours, Russia occupied the villages of Zhelanne and Orlivka and made advances in New York, Krasnohorivka, Mykolaivka and Zhuravka in Donetsk, according to an update posted by DeepState, a war mapping project close to Ukraine’s defense ministry.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not confirm or deny the report, saying only that intense fighting was under way in those areas, and that Kyiv was concentrating its efforts on the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
Russia also continued its air assault on Ukraine, launching three missiles and 29 drones from Kursk, as well as two other regions. Zelenskyy has said another key goal of the incursion into Russian territory is to create a buffer zone and prevent Moscow’s forces from launching cross-border air attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported shooting down all 29 kamikaze drones. One of the ballistic missiles hit the port of Odesa, wounding three people, the city’s Governor Oleh Kiper said in a statement.