*

      Kyiv to help evacuate civilians from Kursk region

        *

      Ukraine attacks Russia with 117 drones, Russia says

        *

      Bloggers say Russia fighting intense battles in Kursk

region

        *

      Russian National Guard beefs up security at nuclear plant

(Adds evacuation order in Glushkovo, paragraph 19)

    By Pavel Polityuk, Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa

       KYIV, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Ukraine's forces advanced

further into Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday as Kyiv said its

gains would provide a strategic buffer zone to protect its

border areas from Russian attacks.

    Kyiv's surge into Russian territory last week caught Moscow

by surprise. Russian forces that began a full-scale invasion of

Ukraine in 2022 had been grinding out steady gains all year.

    President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he met top officials to

discuss the humanitarian situation and establishing a military

commandant's offices “if needed” in an occupied area that Kyiv

says exceeds 1,000 sq km (390 sq miles).

    "We continue to advance further in Kursk," Zelenskiy wrote

on Telegram, "from one to two km in various areas since the

start of the day".

    Later, in his nightly address, Zelenskiy referred to the

growing number of Russian prisoners of war taken in Kursk who

could be exchanged for Ukrainian fighters.

    "Our advance in Kursk is going well today – we are reaching

our strategic goal. The 'exchange fund' for our state has also

been significantly replenished."

    Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said creation of a "buffer

zone" was "designed to protect our border communities from daily

enemy attacks".

    Russia has been pummelling Ukraine with strikes launched

from adjacent border territories, including Kursk.

    Ukraine complains its defence against such attacks has been

hamstrung by the need to respect Western countries' compunction

about using their weapons against Russia's hinterland rather

than against its forces in occupied Ukraine. Zelenskiy once more

urged Western allies to permit long-range missile strikes into

Russia.

    RUSSIA SAYS IT DOWNS UKRAINIAN DRONES

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to expel the

Ukrainian troops. He says they aim, with Western backing, to

give Kyiv a stronger hand in possible future ceasefire talks.

But more than a week of intense battles have so far failed to

oust them.

    "The situation remains difficult," said Yuri Podolyaka, an

influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger.

    Ukraine's General Staff said Kyiv hit four Russian military

airfields overnight in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Kursk

and Nizhniy Novgorod, targeting fuel stores and aerial weapons.

Zelenskiy called the attack "timely" and "accurate".

    The aim of the long-range drone strike was to undermine

Russia's ability to attack Ukraine with glide bombs, a Ukrainian

security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Ukraine's military said it had destroyed a Russian Su-34.

    Moscow said it shot down 117 of the Ukrainian drones as well

as four missiles. The Russian Defence Ministry posted a video on

Telegram that it said showed Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking

Ukrainian positions in Kursk region.

    Later, Russia's defence ministry said its forces had

repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks inside Kursk, including

at Russkoye Porechnoye, 18 km (11 miles) from the border. Some

pro-Russian war bloggers said the front had been stabilised,

while state television said Moscow's forces were turning the

tide.

    Russia's National Guard said it was beefing up security at

the Kursk nuclear power plant, just 35 km (22 miles) from the

fighting.

    In the Russian border region of Belgorod, governor

Vyacheslav Gladkov declared a state of emergency.

    Russia says it has already evacuated around 200,000 people

from the border zone. The acting governor of the Kursk region

late on Wednesday said on Telegram that residents of the border

settlement of Glushkovo were ordered to evacuate.  

    UKRAINE PLANS CIVILIAN EVACUATION CORRIDORS

    Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Kyiv

would open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians

toward both Russia and Ukraine.

    Ukrainian officials said Kyiv would also arrange access for

international humanitarian organisations, likely to include the

International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.

    The unprecedented incursion carries major risks for Russia,

Ukraine and the West, which is keen to avoid a direct

confrontation between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military

alliance that has helped arm Ukraine.

    U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S. officials were in

constant touch with Kyiv over the incursion, although the White

House said Washington had not received advance notice and had no

involvement.

    Russian officials say Ukraine's Western backers must have

known of the attack. "Of course they are involved," lawmaker

Maria Butina told Reuters.

    The offensive could leave Ukrainian forces more exposed on

other parts of the front, where Russia has been slowly adding to

the 18% of Ukrainian territory it now controls.

    The heaviest fighting is still in the Donetsk region, and

Zelenskiy said his forces there would receive more weapons than

planned from the next Western support package.

    Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the Russian

town of Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian natural gas

flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was fully under Ukrainian

control. Natural gas was still flowing on Wednesday.

   "Sudzha is under Ukrainian control. However, Ukraine has no

intention of claiming someone else’s land," the Kyiv foreign

ministry said on X.  

    The Russian rouble RUB= fell further against the dollar on

Wednesday, for a loss of over 8% since the incursion began.

(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Tom Balmforth in Kyiv and

Kevin Liffey in London; editing by Jamie Freed,  Mark Heinrich,

Ros Russell, Sharon Singleton, David Gregorio and Cynthia

Osterman)

((lidia.kelly@thomsonreuters.com;))