“Nobody saw my mother. She is afraid of everything "

In the Kursk region, civilians remain in the territory occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The BBC Russian Service talked with people who do not know what is happening to their relatives

At least two thousand inhabitants who are in the territories occupied by Ukraine do not get in touch, and their relatives do not know what is with them. The vast majority of the missing are elderly people who cannot or do not want to leave their homes, as well as the soldiers-rings who did not participate in the war in Ukraine-they guarded the border from the Russian side. The Russian BBC service spoke with two people (their names are changed) who are looking for their relatives.

Cyril is looking for a mother

Cyril is a resident of Logov, who is about 60 kilometers from the border. On the morning of August 6, on the day when the Ukrainian military entered the territory of the Kursk region, he went to Suju for a 78-year-old mother. There were fights, there was no longer a connection, light and water. Cyril's mother, along with the neighbors, spent the night in the basement - but she refused to leave with him, because she believed that "our military would come and help."

Kirill, according to him, decided not to argue with his mother (he was also sure that the Russians would have a fight off), and began to take his acquaintances and neighbors: he went from Logov to Sudu and vice versa per day. A few hours later, the Russian military blocked the route between the Logovo and Sudye, and it became possible to get to the border city only on country roads. Then Cyril decided to take his mother even against her will, and again went to Sudzh. Along the way, he saw the Ukrainian drone: “I saw him, and he saw me. He just didn’t need me - that’s why he didn’t touch it. ”

By that time, it became clear that Ukrainians occupy Sudzhu. Cyril's friends advised him not to go there anymore, because in 2023 he fought as a volunteer in the Kharkov region (now he says that he was “against hostilities”): “I was told that if I go there and catch me, I just substitute me yourself and your loved ones. Because sooner or later they [Armed Forces] will understand who I am. ” As a result, he never came to his mother.

The residents of Logov began to export on August 9, Cyril was evacuated to Vologda. He submitted an application for the search for his mother in a red cross, but still knows nothing about her fate. The authorities, according to him, are advised to just wait.

Nobody saw my mother. She is afraid of everything. Therefore, most likely, at home. It’s scary to die a starvation. And only I am to blame for this. If I only knew that it would be so, I would forcefully take it out.

Anastasia, looking for grandmother and grandfather

Native Anastasia live in the village of Cossack Loknya, three kilometers from Sudzhi. The last time she contacted them on August 5 - then the Armed Forces of Ukraine had already fired at the region, but the grandmother and grandfather of Anastasia were not planned to leave. Two days later, the fellow villagers, who decided to leave the village on their own; The couple refused to go with them - "like many, at their age, did not want to throw their homes."

Since then, Anastasia has not known anything about the fate of relatives-as BBC writes, there are several dozen people in the Cossack elbow that relatives cannot contact. The woman told BBC that she hopes that her grandmother and grandfather still left-later, when local authorities took up the evacuation of people.

I hope very much and believe that the help was organized on time ... It remains only to wait and believe.

According to the “BBC Russian Service”, “to look for people in the coming days will definitely not be easier,” as security officials demand from local residents to limit the use of the Internet, explaining this by considerations of security and protection against potential scammers. At the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the VKontakte social network blocked the Suda - Search of People, where announcements were published on the search for the missing. The Lisa Alert search detachment daily publishes only depersonal reports indicating the number of requests for the search and the number of people found.