Russia said on Friday that Ukraine had returned 46 Russian citizens who were taken there after Ukrainian forces seized a chunk of Russia's western Kursk region in August, Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

"The painstaking and lengthy negotiations for the return of our fellow countrymen to their homeland have brought results," Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov wrote on his Telegram channel. "They are receiving all necessary assistance."

Smirnov said the civilians were from the Sudzha district, which borders northeast Ukraine, and had returned via Belarus. It was not immediately clear where they had been held in Ukraine.

Russia's human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, published video showing families with toddlers and elderly people receiving humanitarian aid after disembarking from buses.

She said they had been taken out of Kursk region by Ukrainian troops after the Aug. 6 incursion.