More bodies of civilians have reportedly been discovered in a recently liberated village in Russia’s Kursk Region
Several more bodies of civilians have been discovered in Russkoye Porechnoye, a village in Kursk Region, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Russian military has reported.
Russia’s Investigative Committee previously opened a case into the deaths of dozens of locals at the hands of Kiev’s troops that had been occupying the village before its liberation in January.
The bodies were found on the outskirts of the village, the ‘Severny Veter’ (‘Northern Wind’) Telegram channel reported on Monday. Russian troops were only able to scout the area after neutralizing Ukrainian firing positions in the neighboring village of Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, the channel said.
“We are deeply sorry [to say] that bodies of locals that were brutally murdered by Ukrainian Nazis were discovered in the area,” said the channel. It did not specify the exact number of bodies found, but said that the information has already been handed over to Russia’s investigative authorities.
‘Severny Veter’ also published a video from the scene showing at least two bodies, with one lying in the yard of a private house and another discovered in what appears to be a cellar or a room of a building filled with debris and rubble. The Russian Investigative Committee has not commented on these developments so far.
Russkoye Porechnoye was liberated in early January following months of occupation. Ukrainian troops launched a major cross-border incursion into Kursk Region last August, marking the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the escalation of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022.
The area under Ukrainian control has been steadily shrinking, with the Russian military retaking the occupied territories. Last month, the Russian General Staff reported that around two thirds of the territory that had initially been captured by the Ukrainian military during the incursion has been liberated.
Following the liberation of Russkoye Porechnoye, Russian investigators alleged that Kiev’s troops had raped, tortured, and murdered the local inhabitants. They published gruesome videos of bodies piled in cellars in some of the homes inside the community. Several captured Ukrainian servicemen acknowledged committing the crimes while being interrogated, saying they had been acting on the orders of their commanders.
A total of 22 civilians were killed in the village, the Investigative Committee said in January, adding that the Ukrainian soldiers had also raped at least eight local women before killing them. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Kiev’s troops had turned the cellars of the local homes into “torture chambers.”
