Russia has returned over 160 residents of the southwestern Kursk region more than a year after driving out occupying Ukrainian forces from border areas, the Kremlin’s new human rights ombudswoman said Monday.
“Through the direct efforts of the Human Rights Commissioner’s office, we have successfully secured the return of 165 Kursk residents,” Yana Lantratova was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency TASS.
Sixteen of those returned are children, Lantratova added.
In April, Lantratova’s predecessor, Tatiana Moskalkova, had claimed that the last Kursk residents still in Ukrainian captivity had been returned as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange that month.
However, Lantratova said her office was verifying the exact number of Kursk residents still held in Ukraine, with plans to meet her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets “in the near future.”
