A pro-Kremlin political organization said two of its members were killed Friday while helping evacuate civilians from southwestern Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have waged a lightning incursion for nearly two weeks.
The All-Russia People’s Front said that one of its medical staff and a media coordinator died in a shelling attack on their vehicle. Both victims were originally from the partially occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, the organization said.
“They were helping move civilians to temporary shelters,” the group said, without specifying whether the shelling attack was carried out by Russian or Ukrainian forces.
A third member of the All-Russia People’s Front was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, according to the organization.
Russia has evacuated more than 120,000 people from towns and villages near the border with Ukraine since Kyiv launched its surprise incursion on Aug. 6. Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday they would allow the evacuation of civilians from the Kursk region into parts of Russia and Ukraine.
The All-Russia People’s Front, founded by President Vladimir Putin in 2011 during his tenure as prime minister, is a political coalition that unites the ruling United Russia party with pro-government NGOs and other organizations.
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