MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Kharkov Region authorities are considering the option of mandatory evacuation of more than 11,000 people from frontline settlements of the Kupyansk district, head of the region’s military administration, Oleg Sinegubov, said.
"Mandatory evacuation of the civilian population and children may be carried out in 53 settlements of the Kupyansk district, located close to the combat zone, " Sinegubov said, adding that the issue was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the military administration amid a deteriorating situation.
"Tentatively more than 11,000 people, including 600 children, are subject to evacuation," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
For his part, the acting head of the Kupyansk district military administration, Andrey Kanashevich, urged local residents to evacuate. "We suggest that the residents of Kupyansk district make a responsible and balanced decision to temporarily leave for safe territories of the Kharkov Region and Ukraine," he wrote on his page on Facebook (prohibited in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as an extremist organization). Kanashevich cited growing intensity of shelling and wildfires as the reasons for the evacuation.
Earlier, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov reported about an offensive of assault detachments of the Russian battlegroup West in the Kupyansk area. According to the head of the Kharkov Region's military-civilian administration, Vitaly Ganchev, five settlements have come under the control of Russian forces in recent days.