The Human Rights Commissioner of the President of the Russian Federation, Yana Lantratova, said on June 27 that Russia had returned all residents of the Kursk region who had been transferred to Ukraine.
“We have closed the issue related to the Kursk region,” she said after returning five residents of this region to Russia as part of the exchange process.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged civilians on June 27. Seven people returned to Russia, and seven returned to Ukraine.
The governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khenshtin, said that Russia was able to return 171 residents of the region’s border areas, while the fate of 320 people remains unknown.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces controlled the border areas of the Kursk region for several months in 2024-2025. Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said that the region would be liberated at the end of April 2025. After that, the Russian authorities repeatedly reported that they had returned from Ukraine residents of the Kursk region, “illegally detained by the Kiev regime.”