Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday said they have begun evacuating more than 200 locations in the Sumy region near the border with Russia.

So far, 52,000 people have been brought to safety, Sumy’s military governor, Oleh Hryhorov, said on Ukrainian television on Tuesday. He said that this accounts for some 60% of the total 86,000 civilians subject to evacuation in the settlements.

“We ensure transport, accommodation, as well as humanitarian, financial and psychological assistance,” said Hryhorov. He did not specify when the evacuation is expected to be completed.

The Sumy region has been the site of heavy Russian attacks for months. Military experts consider Sumy to be one of the targets of Moscow’s expected summer offensive.

Over the weekend, the Russian military attacked a minibus with a drone, which was supposed to bring Ukrainian civilians to safety, near the town of Bilopillya in the Sumy region. Nine people lost their lives.

Russia said 20,000 naturalized citizens sent to the front

Russian authorities said on Tuesday they have sent some 20,000 migrants to fight in the war against Ukraine after granting them citizenship.

Military investigators regularly carried out raids to find newly naturalized men who did not want to register with the military, said Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee, according to the state news agency TASS on Tuesday.

“We have fished out 80,000 and registered them for military service, and 20,000 of these ‘young’ citizens of Russia, who for some reason do not like living in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan, are already on the front line,” he added.

More than 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is still the destination for many immigrants, especially from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

In the countries mentioned by Bastrykin, the standard of living is significantly lower than in Russia and there is a lack of jobs, so many young men come as guest workers and then try to obtain Russian citizenship.

The Kremlin also relies on financial incentives to attract volunteers to the front, especially from Russia’s poor regions.

In addition, soldiers loyal to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, an ally of the Kremlin, have also been deployed in recent months to recapture parts of the western Russian region of Kursk.

There are also regular reports of citizens from other countries such as China, India, Cuba, Senegal and Togo being recruited.