Authorities in Russia’s Kursk region have decided to evacuate the population of its Glushkov district, acting governor Alexei Smirnov said late on Wednesday, amid the continued advance of Ukrainian forces into the border region.

The district directly borders Ukraine and has a population of about 20,000 people and Smirnov said on the Telegram messaging app that police and other state bodies would coordinate the evacuation process.

Ukraine’s troops still advancing in Russia’s Kursk region, Zelenskiy says

Ukraine said on Wednesday its cross-border invasion had advanced one to two kilometres into the Kursk region since the start of the day and that its troops had finished clearing the Russian border town of Sudzha of Moscow’s forces.

Russian officials have said that nearly 200,000 people were being evacuated following the attack.