Оригинал материала
Kursk Oblast authorities include relatives and evacuees in list of missing persons
On January 9, Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova published a list of 517 individuals reported missing after the Ukrainian army’s incursion into Kursk Oblast. Refugees from border districts noticed that, instead of listing the names of the actual missing persons, the list included their relatives, evacuees, and even a young woman who had been killed. Kursk Oblast resident Lyubov Prilutskaya shared this information on her VKontakte page.
Refugees from Kursk Oblast criticized the list of 517 missing individuals, which was published by Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova and Acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein. Some evacuees, as well as relatives of the missing who had previously appealed to Moskalkova, found their own names included on the list. The list also mentions Nina Kuznetsova, a pregnant young woman who was killed while attempting to leave Sudzha on August 6.
"I don’t understand — am I the one searching for someone, or am I the missing person?" "Did they use a randomizer to compile this list?" "They’ve ignored civilians’ struggles for five months, and now they’re adding insult to injury with this randomly thrown-together list," residents wrote in comments on regional Telegram channels.
Lyubov Prilutskaya from Kursk Oblast recorded a video appeal to Moskalkova and Khinshtein. She had already informed the authorities about her missing parents, but no one has contacted her yet. According to Prilutskaya, about 3,000 people remain in Sudzha. However, the authorities ignored refugees’ pleas to open a humanitarian corridor and evacuate them.
"This isn’t a list. It’s a slap in the face to people who have been waiting for five months without any news about their loved ones! […] You ask us to trust official reports, and then you publish this chaotic and unclear list, whose purpose and audience are a mystery, accompanied by some vague expression of concern…" Prilutskaya said.
Later that evening, Moskalkova acknowledged "inaccuracies" in the list.
The actual number of missing residents in Kursk Oblast following the Ukrainian army’s incursion may be even higher. By mid-August, volunteers from the Liza Alert search-and-rescue team received 523 reports of missing persons. However, they later had to conceal this information to avoid falling victim to fraudsters.
In the autumn, refugees from Kursk Oblast launched a petition to Vladimir Putin, reporting that the number of missing individuals was close to 5,000. They arrived at this estimate using data from Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels. The refugees demanded the creation of a humanitarian corridor to evacuate people from the affected areas.