Russian evacuees in Kursk still aren't getting their $110 payouts pledged by the Kremlin after a month, aid volunteers say
- Russians fleeing Kursk were promised $110, but aid workers say many still can't get the money.
- Volunteer leader Evgeniya Nazarova said evacuees discovered that official data on their villages is missing.
As Ukraine invaded Kursk in early August, Russian leaders announced a relief stipend of 10,000 rubles, or $110, for every resident who was forced to leave their home.
Yet aid workers in the region say they've been working with refugees who still haven't received the promised payout a month after Kyiv's incursion.
Evgeniya Nazarova, who runs the local volunteer group Social Navigator, said in an hourlong interview on the Russian YouTube channel "Walk and Talk" that state services were rejecting evacuees' applications for payments.
Nazarova didn't say in the interview — published on Monday — exactly how many evacuees still haven't received their money, but told "Walk and Talk" that she regularly received calls from refugees asking for help.
Most of them had their applications denied due to incomplete official data on the region that did not register their villages, Nazarova said.
"There is no consultation, information, or interagency action at all," she said in Russian, slamming the government's response as "beautiful refusals."
She further said that refugees are unable to obtain permission to get new housing in Kursk because they have to file a report with their local administration centers — which are now on the battlefield.
"How can you draw up a report if military action is going on there?" she said.
Nazarova said her organization has provided food, sleeping materials, and aid to about 10,000 refugees but said thousands have had to rely on volunteers for a place to sleep.
As she spoke, other social workers agreed with her on camera. Several refugees, who described fleeing their homes amid the chaos, also echoed Nazarova's words.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that it had spent about $14.3 million on payouts to over 87,600 residents in Kursk.
That's out of a total of 133,000 refugees, according to evacuation estimates by Alexei Smirnov, the region's acting governor, in late August.
Ukraine launched its incursion into Kursk on August 6, breaching Russian defensive lines and taking several larger settlements in the area. It claims to have seized control of over 100 villages and towns.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, which oversees relief efforts in Kursk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.