Former governor confirms Russian soldiers looted homes in Kursk region, days after state media blamed Ukrainians

Roman Starovoit, the former governor of Russia’s Kursk region, acknowledged in a video published Thursday that Russian soldiers looted homes abandoned by residents of the region’s Glushkovsky District who fled Ukraine’s ongoing cross-border incursion.

“As for the looting. This was discussed yesterday at a meeting with law enforcement agencies. There have been instances of looting among both civilian and military personnel,” Starovoit said at a meeting with residents of the Glushkovsky District.

After Starovoit’s statement, the residents began to applaud.

Starovoit, who currently serves as Russia’s Transport Minister, said that law enforcement has been instructed to enhance security in the district. “There’s evidence that the looted items are being sent through delivery services [deeper into Russia],” he added.

The region’s current governor, Alexey Smirnov, posted about the meeting with residents on his Telegram channel, but did not mention the looting.

On November 11, Russian state media reported that Ukrainian soldiers had allegedly looted houses in the village of Glushkovo. After military bloggers pointed out that the village had never been under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, TASS edited the article to remove the reference to Glushkovo, instead writing “a village in the Glushkovsky region.”