On the same day that Russia’s Investigative Committee was accusing Ukrainian troops of killing 22 civilians and raping eight women in a village in the Kursk region, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova was commending the humanitarian conduct of Kyiv’s soldiers towards the residents of Sudzha.
In a televised report to the State Duma on Thursday Moskalkova, who supervises prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin, said, “We shouldn’t lose our sense of humanity and see [Ukraine] only as an empire of evil.”
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She went on to say that she had interviewed Kursk residents, that had been returned to Russia via Ukraine’s Sumy region (which shares a border with Kursk) and Belarus, who told her of acts of compassion by Kyiv’s soldiers. “They told me different stories, including how Ukrainian servicemen rescued captured Kursk residents from [unspecified] mercenaries, shared their last meals with them, bought them firewood, took them to hospitals including a maternity clinic [in Sumy].”
She said because of this she urged [Moscow] to “fight for the souls” of Ukrainian soldiers who share the Orthodox Christian faith with Russians.
Her remarks, which contrast with the Kremlin’s long-standing narrative that Ukraine is ruled by a “Nazi regime” and the 2022 full-scale invasion was necessary because of Kyiv’s “genocide” against its Russian speaking minority were viewed positively by the media in Ukraine and the West.
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Needless to say, Moskalkova’s comments weren’t received in quite the same way by mainstream and social media commentators in Russia.
The self-declared war correspondent Aleksandr Kots told Russia’s Bloknot tabloid news site that he had also spoken to the returnees but said the actions of Ukraine’s troops in Sudzha were choreographed by “the khokhols [Russian derogatory term for Ukrainians] to impress the Red Cross, humanitarian organizations, and foreign journalists. That is, this was ‘artificial kindness’ for the [benefit of the] cameras.”
He said Western volunteers and reporters would have had a different response from occupants of Russkoye Porechnoye which would show the true “animal face” of Ukraine where “…tortured, tied-up pensioners, torn and mangled bodies of peaceful villagers were found in the basements and the highway was littered with burnt out civilian cars.”
The Russian Telegram channel Verum Regnum said Moskalkova had “succumbed to enemy [Ukrainian] propaganda and ‘bought’ their pretty picture, which she now publicly broadcasts and extrapolates to all servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” It then described her comments as “a crime” that ignored those “civilians that had been tortured in other settlements in the Kursk Region and beyond.”
Ukraine has controlled dozens of towns and villages in Russia’s Kursk border region since launching a surprise offensive in August. Its armed forces advanced deep into Russian territory and gained control of several hundred square kilometers within the first couple of weeks. While Russia had recovered more than half of the territory by the end of 2024, Kyiv says it still controls around 450 square kilometers (174 square miles) in which around 2,000 Russian civilians remain.
Incidentally the latest deadline that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Russia’s armed forces to “drive Ukraine’s forces out of Kursk” was Feb. 1, 2025 – after his alleged earlier goals of Oct. 15 and Jan. 20 (the day of US President Trump’s inauguration) were missed.
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