KYIV -- Ukraine on September 16 invited the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit territory it has captured in its six-week-old military incursion into Russia's Kursk region to demonstrate its adherence to humanitarian law, in a move the Kremlin called a "provocation" even as it ordered that Russia's army beef up its ranks.
The Kremlin also expressed confidence through President Vladimir Putin's spokesman that the UN and the Red Cross would decline the Ukrainian invite.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry published the open invitation for the humanitarian missions to Kursk hours after Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said he had requested the invites during a weekend visit to the northeastern Sumy region, which borders Russia.
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"Ukraine is ready to facilitate their work and prove its adherence to international humanitarian law," Sybiha said.
In an apparent attempt to contrast Ukrainian actions with accusations of widespread abuses by Russian troops since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Sybiha claimed that "[s]ince the first day of the Kursk operation, Ukraine’s Defense Forces demonstrated full adherence to international humanitarian law as a professional army with high standards and values of freedom and human life. They ensured humanitarian assistance and safe passage to civilians."
"We expect that such provocative statements will not be accepted by the addressees," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying. "This is a pure provocation."
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhiy countered that the Kremlin reaction "shows Russia’s disregard for its own people and their humanitarian needs, as well as fear of allowing international observers to see the real situation. Quite telling."
Since its incursion began in Kursk in early August, Kyiv claims to have gained control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory. Kyiv has hinted that the operation was intended to better position it in the event of peace talks amid some calls for more intense efforts to end the war.
On September 16, Kursk regional Governor Aleksei Smirnov ordered residents in two districts -- Ryisky and Khomutovsky -- to evacuate settlements within 15 kilometers of the Ukrainian border.
Nearly 31 months into the full-scale invasion with Russian regular and mobilization forces reporting gains in eastern Ukraine and international debate mounting to better equip Ukrainian forces and lift restrictions on Kyiv's long-range attacks on Russian territory, Putin on September 16 reportedly ordered an increase in troop numbers in the Russian military by 180,000 individuals, to a total of 1.5 million soldiers.
Ukraine’s General Staff, in its late briefing on September 16, said fierce fighting was continuing in the Kursk region.
Earlier on September 16, Ukraine's air force said it shot down 53 of 56 Russian drones it detected overnight that were targeting a handful of regions and said the "main direction" of a "massive" overnight bombardment was Kyiv that was the eighth attack on the capital this month.
Kyiv's regional military administration head, Ruslan Kravchenko, said one woman was hospitalized after being injured by fragments of a downed drone.
City military administration chief Serhiy Popko said Kyiv had been under attack for more than three hours overnight as air defenses shot down "almost two dozen enemy UAVs...around the capital."
Farther east, Ukrainian officials said the body of a woman was found under rubble late on September 15 at the scene of a Russian air strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said before dawn on September 16 that rescue operations were ongoing at the scene in Kharkiv of the bombardment by at least four missiles or other explosives, which struck a multistory residential building.
He said the latest information suggested 35 people were injured, including three children.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov has said that 42 people were injured.
Ukraine's General Staff also said Russian forces were continuing their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine, pointing to the area around Kurakhove in the Donbas region and around Pokrovsk, which has been under assault for the past several weeks.
"There have been more than a hundred battles since the beginning of the day. Most of them are in the Kurakhove direction, Pokrovsk," it said.
In Russia, officials said eight residents of the southern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine were injured by shelling and drone attacks by Ukrainian forces.
Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov also said a gas pipeline was damaged during the shelling, which he said affected at least 10 settlements over the past 24 hours.
RFE/RL cannot independently corroborate claims of battlefield developments by either side in areas of the heaviest fighting.
Russia has bombarded Ukraine with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), rockets, and various kinds of missiles for much of the 36-month-old full-scale invasion.
Many of the most recent attacks have targeted power and other infrastructure, but bombs have frequently also struck hospitals, schools, and residential buildings, despite Moscow's assertion that it is not targeting civilians.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on September 15 that Russia is seeking "to achieve a decisive victory in Ukraine by 2026 before likely medium- to long-term economic and force generation constraints begin to significantly degrade Russia's ability to sustain its war effort in Ukraine."
It also said that, amid "growing challenges" in production and procurement of military equipment and munitions, "the Kremlin will likely become increasingly reliant on foreign partners to meet its materiel needs."
Zelenskiy recently urged the United States and other allies to "promptly implement" agreements on weapons and other supplies to help fight the invasion, underscoring Western debates on the extent and current restrictions on military aid to Kyiv.
Zelenskiy told CNN that he expects to present Joe Biden with a four-point plan to win the war when he meets with the U.S. president later this month.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on September 10 expressed hope for a second major peace summit to build on a similar gathering in Switzerland three months ago aimed at ending the war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's allies are seemingly growing more receptive to loosening restrictions on the use of long-range weapons to allow Kyiv to hit targets deep inside Russia.
NATO, of which Ukraine is not a member, is also facing growing calls to do more to fend off Russian missiles and drone strikes, some of which have violated NATO members' airspace.
Jens Stoltenberg, the outgoing NATO chief, on September 16 said any decisions on the use of such weapons are "for individual allies to make."
"Allies have different policies on this," he told London radio.
Asked about threats by Putin of retaliation, the NATO chief said there were "no risk-free options in the war."
"But I continue to believe that the biggest risk for us, for United Kingdom, for NATO, will be if President Putin wins in Ukraine," he added.