Dozens of residents of Russia’s border region of Kursk have been returned from Ukraine following rare and “thorough” negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, Moscow said on Friday.

In August, Ukraine made a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, marking the first operation on Russian soil since the start of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022, and capturing several settlements. Despite this, Russia has continued its gradual but persistent advance into eastern Ukraine, taking control of village after village as it aims to seize the entire industrialized Donbas region.

The reasons for transporting the residents to Ukraine remain unclear, and Kyiv had no immediate comment.

“Today, 46 residents of the Kursk region returned to Russia from Ukraine as a result of a process of negotiations with the Ukrainian side,” said Russian human rights lawyer Tatiana Moskalkova.

The residents were all from Sudzhansky district, home to the border town of Sudzha, which Ukraine captured shortly after the offensive was launched, according to local governor Alexei Smirnov.

“The painstaking and long negotiations for the return of our compatriots to their homeland have brought results,” he said on Telegram.

The residents included 12 children and were returned via Belarus, all of whom were given “all necessary assistance,” he added.

One of the children returned to the business was three-year-old Darina, her mother, Anastasia Gridina, told AFP.

“I’m already on my way. In four hours I will meet Darina,” she said.

Gridina had gone to Moscow for temporary work, leaving her daughter with her grandmother in the village of Lebedevka in the Kursk region, when Ukraine launched its shock offensive.

In October, she said AFP she asked for help “everywhere”, even writing a personal letter to President Vladimir Putin.

At one point, she tried to cross the front line alone, but had to turn back.

The limited return of civilians, as well as exchanges of captured soldiers and bodies of slain fighters, have become the only areas of cooperation between the two sides, which have been fighting since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.

With contributions from agencies.