Dec 22 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that residents of a border village taken into Russia by Moscow’s troops had interacted with their neighbours for years without incident.
Zelenskiy, addressing reporters at an event honouring Ukraine’s diplomats, confirmed media reports that residents of Hrabovske village straddling the border in Sumy region and home to 52 people, were taken away by Russian troops.
“These 52 people who lived there and did not leave naturally carried on a dialogue of some sort with those on Russian territory,” Zelenskiy said.
“They lived like this for many years. And I think they simply didn’t expect Russian troops to simply walk in and take them away as prisoners. But that’s what happened.”
The Kremlin has not commented on the situation.
Zelenskiy said 13 Ukrainian servicemen were among those taken away.
“They could have killed the enemy right there from a distance with artillery or drones, but they didn’t,” he said. “They didn’t because there were civilians there. They didn’t want to kill civilians.”
Ukrainian forces, he said, would restore their positions in the village.
“What we do next to have those people return, that is another matter,” he said.
Russian forces have gained a foothold in Sumy region in recent months, seizing several villages near the border. Many areas of the region are subjected to frequent Russian shelling.
The head of the Sumy region military administration, Oleh Hryhorov, said on Sunday that authorities had begun evacuating residents of border villages who had earlier refused to be moved.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr KozhukharEditing by Rod Nickel)
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