Ukraine returns 33 civilians from Russia’s Kursk border region: Moscow

Ukraine has returned to Russia a handful of civilians displaced from the western Kursk region after Kyiv’s shock cross-border offensive into Russian territory, Moscow officials said Monday.

Hundreds of Russians have been stuck in Ukrainian-seized territory following the offensive, launched in August, triggering concern and some anger at the authorities among their relatives.

Moscow said last week that it had struck a deal with Kyiv to secure the return of some civilians who had crossed into Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region since the offensive was launched.

“With the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross and mediation by Belarus, 33 residents of the Kursk region have been evacuated to Russia from Ukraine,” Russia’s human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said on Telegram.

“Most are elderly, but there are also four children. Many have severe injuries and illnesses,” she said.

Moskalkova posted a video showing her greeting elderly women — one being carried on a stretcher — at the Novaya Guta border post in Belarus after their return.

Pat Griffiths, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) based in Ukraine, told AFP the group had been taken to the Ukrainian city of Sumy last month.

Russia’s governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said their return was the result of many months of “difficult negotiations.”

The youngest of those returned was a one-year-old girl, he posted on Telegram.

Ukraine has also been seeking the return of civilians caught in Russian-occupied parts of the country since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.

These include around 20,000 children that Ukraine says have been forcibly “deported” to Russia.

Kyiv separately announced Monday the return of seven children from areas of Ukraine seized by Russia’s army in a deal mediated by Qatar.

Russia has been gradually clawing back territory in Kursk since Ukraine’s army launched the attack in August — the first time a foreign army has seized Russian land since World War II.

Kyiv, which sees its hold of part of the Kursk region as a key bargaining chip in possible ceasefire talks with Moscow, conceded last month that it had lost around two-thirds of the ground it had initially captured.