Pro-war singers Shaman and Grigory Leps visited Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Thursday to entertain wounded soldiers and bid farewell to children evacuated from their homes as the Ukrainian incursion into the area entered its fourth week.
Between air raid sirens, the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, shared on Telegram videos of Shaman and Leps performing acoustic versions of their hits for a young audience on an improvised open-air stage.
Shaman performed his popular song “Ya Russkiy” (I am Russian), which has become an unofficial anthem of some pro-war Russians, changing the lyrics towards the end to “Ya Kurskyi” (I am from Kursk) as a reference to the local audience.
According to the Telegram news channel Govorit Nemoskva, the children present were evacuated to the Artek youth camp on the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Russian Defense Ministry also released footage of Shaman and Leps performing at a local cultural center for soldiers, where they gave away signed guitars and handed out “vitamin packages.”
Since Ukraine invaded the Kursk region on August 6, more than 130,000 Russians have been displaced from border areas, and another 2,000 are missing – a level of displacement not seen in the region since World War II. According to authorities, around 20,000 residents of the Kursk region still live in Ukrainian-controlled areas.
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