KIEV — Ukraine has taken control of 82 settlements in western Russia's Kursk region, Oleksandr Syrsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.
Since the beginning of their operation in the Kursk region, Ukrainian troops have advanced 35 km along the Russian army's defence, and controlled more than 1,150 sq km of territory, Syrsky said on Thursday on his official Telegram channel.
Since the beginning of Thursday, Ukrainian troops have advanced between 500 metres and 1.5 km further into the Kursk region, he added.
The Ukrainian troops have captured the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that a military commandant's office is being established there, Xinhua news agency reported.
Russia's Defence Ministry announced that in the past 24 hours, their forces successfully repelled six Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region. Additionally, it claimed to have destroyed 117 drones and four tactical missiles launched by Ukraine at several regions including Kursk.
The Ministry also added that Ukraine had lost up to 2,300 soldiers and 37 tanks during its incursion into Kursk.
"Several other settlements have also been liberated. In total, there are already more than 80 of them," Zelensky said.
Ukrainian forces have continued to advance since launching their incursion into Russia.
As of Tuesday, Zelensky said 74 communities -- which are largely small villages and hamlets -- were under Ukrainian control in the Kursk region.
Syrskyi said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had completed search-and-destroy operations for Russian forces still in Sudzha, the main border town from which Ukrainian forces have been expanding their bridgehead inside Russia.
Amid the advance, mass evacuations are underway in the Kursk region and elsewhere.
More than 720 people have left border areas in the Kursk region over the past 24 hours, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Thursday.
Provisional accommodation centres in 14 regions have received 9,500 people, including more than 6,500 in the Kursk region, the Ministry said.
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said on Thursday that the military is "allocating additional forces" among its measures to increase security in regions bordering Ukraine.
"We are talking, first of all, about increasing the efficiency of the troop command and control system in interaction with other law enforcement agencies and the administration of the Belgorod region, about identifying responsible officials, as well as allocating additional forces and means that will be sent to carry out the main tasks," Belousov was quoted by the Defense Ministry as saying.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russian forces have been trying to advance towards the logistics hub of Pokrovsk for months, inching forward incrementally.
The head of the Civil Military Administration in Pokrovsk said on Thursday that the "enemy almost approached our community to the city of Pokrovsk" and was a little more than six miles from the outskirts of the city.