Vitaly Slashchev, the mayor of the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, said that the situation in the city was gradually coming back to normal. The mayor confirmed the start of the evacuation.
"The evacuation is underway, slowly but surely. Is there shelling? Well, what do you think?," the Mayor of Sudzha said.
Mobile communication in the town remains extremely unstable and may disappear at times. The authorities have a lot of work to do, as they constantly receive calls from local residents who need help, the mayor said.
The Ukrainian army started shelling the town of Sudzha on August 6. Ukrainian soldiers stormed the Russian state border with the support of tanks and armored vehicles.
The Ukrainian forces continue the heavy artillery fire making it impossible to travel to Sudzha, chair of the Kursk regional charitable public organization Guardian Angel and regional head of Give Food federal project Mikhail Silakov said.
According to him, local residents help each other escape from the zone of shelling. People from all areas of the Kursk region are willing to help evacuate the victims, but it is almost impossible to get to the town of Sudzha.
The attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine came as a total surprise for the civilian population. Local residents say that the Ukrainian military shoot at civilian cars as people were trying to escape to safety.
The Ukrainian forces damaged the Sudzha gas metering station in the Kursk region. The destruction of the facility may negatively affect the transit of Russian gas to Europe, since it is part of the only route for pipeline deliveries of natural gas from Russia to the European countries.