Ukraine says border villagers kidnapped and taken to Russia

Kiev authorities said invading forces brought 52 residents of a Ukrainian village to Russia during a cross-border attack on the village of Hrabovsk. Thirteen Ukrainian soldiers were also captured in border villages in the northeastern Sumy region.

Viktor Trehubov, spokesman for the Ukrainian military’s Joint Forces Task Force, said the attack took place on Saturday night when about 100 Russian soldiers attacked the village.

He told the BBC that the civilians were first rounded up in a church and then taken to Russia across the border.

He added that it would be unusual for an invading force to bring civilians to Russia before establishing a solid presence in occupied territory.

Russia has so far not commented on the fate of the Hrabovsk civilians, but reports from Ukraine suggest they may have been taken to Belgorod, a major regional center about 50 miles (80 kilometers) inside Russia.

“My friend’s mother was taken there. Although they tried, they could not contact her,” said Sumy Regional Council member Vladimir Bisak. “As far as I know, they have been taken to the city of Belgorod and are being held in an unknown location.”

Lieutenant Colonel Trekhubov told the BBC late on Tuesday that fighting was still continuing south of Khrabovsk, but Ukrainian website Deep State, which monitors the battlefield, later said the village had been occupied by Russian troops.

Moscow’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops had been “attacked” in Hrabovsk and several other villages in the Sumy region.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said it had withdrawn its troops from the troubled town of Siversk “to protect the lives of our soldiers.”

After Russia captured the town, its forces moved closer to the Donetsk “fortress belt cities” of Slovsk and Kramatorsk, about 35 kilometers (21 miles) to the west.

Ukrainian authorities have been working to relocate civilians from parts of the Sumy region bordering Russia. However, Victor Babic, deputy director of the Sumy regional government, said that 56% of residents in the border area refused to leave, and 32,000 civilians, including 604 children, remained there.

Most of the 52 civilians arrested in cross-border raids in Hrabovsk were elderly people who refused official evacuation orders.

“It was a smash and grab,” Lt. Col. Trehubov said. “They quickly rounded up everyone and took them away quickly. This has never happened before. We have never had an attack like this before.”

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said children were also captured.

“I’m surprised to have children. I’m just surprised that parents treat their children like this,” Zelensky told reporters. “I don’t think they expected to be taken (to Russia) by Russian troops at all.”

The vast majority of civilians have been evacuated from the village, which had a reported pre-war population of approximately 700 people.

Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Rubinets said the civilians were “held in solitary confinement in an environment without contact with the outside world” by Russian troops who invaded Hrabovsk before being taken out of Ukraine.

“Such actions are a serious violation of international humanitarian law. They unlawfully detained and forcibly deported civilians and violated the laws and customs of war,” he said.