The UN human rights office (UNHCR) said it had asked Moscow to let it visit Russian regions affected by Ukraine’s cross-border campaign. The office had previously asked Russia repeatedly for access to both Russian territory and to Ukrainian territories under Russia’s control, to no avail, said Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the UNHCR. In contrast, Ukraine has said it will open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians towards both Russia and Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials have promised access for international humanitarian organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN. In Kursk, Agence France-Presse said its reporters saw about 500 evacuees from border areas queueing for food and clothes being distributed by the Russian Red Cross.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander in chief, said Ukraine had set up a military commandant’s office in occupied Kursk. “We are moving forward in Kursk region. A military commandant’s office has been created which must ensure order and also all the needs of the local population,” Syrskyi said, adding that the office would be headed by Maj Gen Eduard Moskalyov. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced his troops had full control over the Russian town of Sudzha, which had a prewar population of 5,000 people and contains infrastructure pumping Russian gas towards Europe, writes Shaun Walker.
Dan Sabbagh writes that the Ukrainian incursion has been good for morale at home but has obscured the difficulties Ukraine is facing in the central section of Donbas oblast, where Russian forces have been gaining a mile a week since 1 July – pressing towards Pokrovsk, a strategic road and rail junction
Russia said on Thursday that its forces had taken control of Ivanivka, 16km (10 miles) from Pokrovsk. It was reported by Reuters, which said it could not independently verify the claim, but said Ukraine had reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.
Ukraine’s special forces captured a group of more than 100 Russian soldiers in Kursk, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Thursday, adding that Ukrainian forces also took over their “sprawling, concrete and well-fortified company stronghold”. The 102 servicemen of Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment and its “Akhmat” unit are the largest group of soldiers to be captured at the same time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, according to the SBU. Pictures showed dozens of Russian servicemen sitting or lying on the ground in a concrete bunker with their helmets and weapons piled up near the walls. The prisoners would eventually be swapped for Ukrainian prisoners of war, the SBU said.