“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is that the boarding house was destroyed. These people [who were in the building] now have nowhere to shelter from the cold, and no one knows what they will eat. At least they had some kind of refuge there,” said Lyubov Prilutskaya. Residents of the boarding house, featured in the Ukrainian YouTube program "Unwanted by Putin" on the Territorial Defense Forces’ channel, said they had been placed there by Ukrainian troops. The facility housed those who had lost their homes due to shelling and bombings. Many of the residents were elderly, sick, or children. They had nowhere else to go except the temporary shelter. According to Aleksey Dmitrashkovsky, spokesperson for Ukraine’s military command in the Kursk region, 95 people were in the boarding house on February 1. Lyubov’s aunt, Marina Prilutskaya, was among those staying in the shelter. Lyubov learned this from a video published in the Ukrainian program in October 2024. Before and after the video aired, she had been unable to contact her aunt. The footage shows Marina sitting at a table in the boarding house alongside another resident of the Sudzha district. The background in the video matched other episodes, confirming it was filmed at the facility. Marina did not explain how or why she ended up there but asked her children to find her and sent greetings to them and her grandchildren. She said she was fine. Lyubov does not know how Marina got to the shelter. Previously, her aunt lived on Shkolnaya Street in the village of Zaoleshenka, Sudzha district. Marina is listed among the missing persons in Sudzha, according to an activist from Kursk, Vladimir Sinelnikov. He also indicated Zaoleshenka as her last known address. Marina, around 50 years old, used to live in a private house and grow vegetables in her garden, like most villagers. A cheerful and sociable woman, she loved spending time with her grandchildren and chatting with neighbors. Marina has four daughters. They managed to leave the Sudzha district before Ukrainian forces took control in August 2024. Like Lyubov, they had planned to return and take their relatives with them, but it was too late. Ukrainian troops had already occupied Sudzha. Families of those left behind did not expect the offensive to be so swift, and Kursk officials had reassured residents that there was no danger. The authorities only declared a state of emergency on the second day after the border was breached and evacuated civilians on the third day. Lyubov sent the video featuring Marina to her daughters. “It’s incredibly hard for all of us. Being out of touch with loved ones is difficult enough, but knowing the conditions they are forced to survive in, thinking about it every day, and being unable to help, it’s unbearable,” Prilutskaya shared. Russian Authorities’ Inaction Marina has been out of contact since August 6, the first day of Ukraine’s offensive. Communication with people in the Sudzha district is only possible through Ukrainian soldiers, who provide residents with phones and make video calls to their relatives. Lyubov has not yet been able to reach her aunt. She and her sisters do not know if Marina was in the shelter during the airstrike, but they suspect she never left. They are awaiting information from the Ukrainian side. When asked if she hopes acting governor Alexander Khinshtein will provide any information about Marina, Lyubov responded: “Of course not.” In a Telegram post about the airstrike, Khinshtein did not acknowledge that people were inside the building. He only speculated that they "might have been there." Lyubov believes it is pointless to expect a list of the names of those who were in the building at the time of the attack. They Are Not Heard, But They Keep Fighting Besides her aunt, Lyubov Prilutskaya’s parents also remain in Sudzha. She lost contact with them on August 6, 2024. Over the past six months, Lyubov has recorded two video appeals to Kursk region governor Khinshtein and Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova. She asked them to compile a list of those still in Sudzha. Relatives also proposed organizing a "green corridor" to evacuate civilians, just as authorities had already done for 46 Kursk region residents. Khinshtein and Moskalkova did compile a list—but it contained only the names of those who had personally requested help, not the missing people in Sudzha. After criticism from volunteers and relatives, Khinshtein and Moskalkova defended the list, saying it only included those who had reached out directly to the ombudsman. Following the video appeals, Khinshtein organized a meeting for relatives of those still in Sudzha. Lyubov attended and asked about her family. Afterward, the acting governor invited her to a working group session, where she and other relatives compiled a list of people still in Sudzha. Lyubov also spoke with Tatyana Moskalkova twice. However, both Moskalkova and Khinshtein ignored the request for a green corridor. “We are all in despair. We’ve been knocking on every door for six months, shouting and begging for a green corridor for these people, but no one is listening,” Lyubov said angrily. According to her, Ukrainian forces were planning to transfer people from the boarding house to Russia through Ukraine and Belarus. An anonymous 7x7 source familiar with the volunteer efforts confirmed that negotiations were underway. However, Russian and Ukrainian authorities failed to reach an agreement. Lyubov, along with other relatives and activists, launched the social media campaign #WeAreThePeopleOfSudzha to draw attention to the evacuation effort. “We [the relatives of the missing in Sudzha district] love our families deeply. Their lives are infinitely precious to us. Ukrainians make videos titled ‘People Unwanted by Putin’, but we emphasize with our campaign that they are wanted. They matter to us. And we will not stop fighting for their lives,” said Lyubov Prilutskaya. | 
