Ukraine has not fulfilled one point of the Istanbul agreements — Medinsky

About 30 residents of the Kursk region are still being held by the Ukrainian side. This was stated after the meeting in Istanbul by the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky.

"Unfortunately, we were forced to state that one point of our agreements was still not fully implemented. Not all civilians of the Kursk region who were evacuated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the territory of Ukraine have been returned home at the moment. There are not many of them, about 30 people, but they are still held by Ukraine. To be honest, I don't understand why this is happening at all," Medinsky said.

According to Kiev, civilians were taken out from under fire. But if this is true, then nothing prevents them from being returned, he noted.

"And if you took them hostage, like Hamas was the first to come to hand, then let's call them hostages and treat them accordingly. Even in this case, we are ready to change them to military or other categories. Just call your actions as they really are," the head of the Russian delegation added.