Ukraine says it now controls over 80 Russian settlements, including town of Sudzha

Ukraine now controls over 80 Russian settlements, including the town of Sudzha, since launching its major incursion into the Kursk region last week, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.

Ukrainian troops have advanced more than 21 miles inside Russia and are now in control of 82 settlements and approximately 444 square miles of territory in the Kursk region, Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on Thursday.

Ukraine has also set up its first military office in the region, Syrskyi said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message Thursday that a Ukrainian military commandant's office is being established in Sudzha following "the completion of the liberation of the town" from the Russian military.

"Several other settlements have also been liberated. In total, there are already more than 80 of them," he said.

Ukrainian forces have continued to advance since launching their incursion into Russia. As of Tuesday, Zelenskyy said 74 communities -- which are largely small villages and hamlets -- were under Ukrainian control in the Kursk region.

Syrskyi said 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.

Over 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 centers in 14 regions have received 9,500 people, including more than 6,500 in the Kursk region, the ministry said.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said 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 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.