Lantratova stated that all residents of the Kursk region who were in Ukraine have returned. Khinshtein: “The fate of 320 people remains unknown”

The Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Yana Lantratova, said that the issue of returning residents of the Kursk region who found themselves on the territory of Ukraine after the invasion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces into the region is “closed.” At the same time, the governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said that the fate of another 320 border residents remains unknown.

“Today I am grateful to the Ukrainian side for closing the issue on the Kursk region. <...> Residents of the Kursk region have all returned home,”

— Lantratova told reporters, TASS reports . The agency does not specify where exactly she made this statement.

At the same time, Khinshtein stated that 171 residents of the Kursk border region were returned from the territory of Ukraine, but the fate of another 320 people remains unknown.

“Unfortunately, the fate of 320 people still remains unknown,”

— the governor wrote.

On June 27, Russia and Ukraine handed over seven civilians to each other. According to Lantratova, five residents of the Kursk region and two residents of other regions returned to Russia. Khinshtein reported that five Kursk residents are already heading to Russia from the Belarusian border.

The governor named the names of some of those who returned: Maxim Nikolaevich and Sergei Viktorovich lived in Lyubimovka, Korenevsky district, Mikhail - in Olgovka, Elena Viktorovna - in Sudzha. Another man, Roman, was in the Martynovka area when he was on his way to take out a relative.

Russian authorities call residents of the Kursk region who found themselves in Ukraine after fighting in the border region “hostages” and claim that they were captured by the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainian side previously stated that it had evacuated civilians from the combat zone.

This is not the first time Lantratova has spoken about the completion of the return of Kursk residents from Ukraine. In April, her predecessor Tatyana Moskalkova stated that the last seven of 165 residents of the Kursk region, whom the Russian side considered detained in Ukraine, had returned to Russia. At the end of May, Lantratova also confirmed that all these people had returned home. However, then Khinshtein said that there may be other residents of the region in Ukraine, and Lantratova herself said that the authorities continue to find out how many Russians are being held by the Ukrainian side.

The exchange on June 27 took place according to the “7 to 7” formula. Ukraine said it had received seven civilians held by Russian authorities since the occupation of Mariupol, Kyiv, Kharkov, Zaporozhye and Lugansk regions in 2022. Among them were a resident of the Buchansky district of the Kyiv region, a volunteer of the Mariupol brigade “Angels of Tyra” and a man who, according to the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets, was detained by the Russian military on his way to work on the day the full-scale invasion began.