MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Friday that Ukraine had returned 46 Russian citizens who were taken there after Ukrainian forces seized a chunk of Russia’s western Kursk region in August.
“The painstaking and lengthy negotiations for the return of our fellow countrymen to their homeland have brought results,” Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov wrote on his Telegram channel. “They are receiving all necessary assistance.”
Smirnov said the civilians were from the Sudzha district, which borders northeast Ukraine, and had returned via Belarus. It was not immediately clear where they had been held in Ukraine.
Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, published video showing families with toddlers and elderly people receiving humanitarian aid after disembarking from buses.
She said they had been taken out of Kursk region by Ukrainian troops after the Aug. 6 incursion.
“All this time, we were worried, we were in touch with relatives, collected documents for the return of our people,” she said, adding that the negotiations had involved Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine continues to control part of Kursk despite Russian attempts to dislodge Kyiv’s forces. Russia has retaken several villages in the region.
Moskalkova said last month she had received appeals regarding more than 1,000 Russian citizens from Kursk, whose whereabouts were unknown and who were said to have been taken by Ukrainian forces.
Reuters could not independently verify those reports.
At least 122,000 Kursk residents were displaced when authorities ordered evacuations shortly after Kyiv’s troops smashed through Russia’s western border, supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms.
Both Kyiv and Moscow deny targeting or imprisoning civilians, but thousands have died during the 33-month war, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Andrew Heavens)
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