A group of residents in the southwestern Kursk region on Monday organized a protest in response to the regional government’s recent decision to end monthly compensation payments for those whose homes were badly damaged during Ukraine’s incursion.
Since February, displaced residents in the region have received monthly payments of 65,000 rubles ($800), along with other support measures.
On Saturday, Kursk region Governor Alexander Khinshtein and First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said funds previously used for those payments would instead be redirected toward broader recovery and development efforts starting in January.
“We need to give the regional economy a new impulse,” Khinshtein wrote in a message on Telegram.
As many as 200 displaced residents gathered Monday outside the Sudzhansky district administration office in the regional capital to argue that the payment cuts would leave them without a means to survive.
Videos published by the exiled news outlet Govorit NeMoskva showed elderly women confronting one of Khinshtein’s advisers and other officials.
“Canceling 65,000 rubles will make us homeless and debt-ridden,” one protester said.
More than 150,000 people were ordered to evacuate towns and villages near the border after Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion in August 2024. Ukraine was forced to retreat earlier this year after Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops, launched a successful counteroffensive.
Displaced residents have since staged several protests over poor living conditions and what they describe as inadequate compensation.
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