Ukrainian troops tell of catastrophe and panic

Ukrainian soldiers who fight in the Kursk Russia region described scenes “like a horror film” while they withdrew from the front lines.

The BBC has received extensive accounts from Ukrainian troops, which tell a “catastrophic” withdrawal from heavy fire, and columns of destroyed military equipment and constant attacks on swarms of Russian drones.

The soldiers, who spoke on social networks, received alias to protect their identity. Some have given “collapse” accounts while Ukraine lost Sudzha, the largest city he held.

Ukrainian restrictions on front trips have meant that it is not possible to obtain a complete image of the situation. But that’s how five Ukrainian soldiers described what had happened to us.

On March 9, “Volodymyr” sent a telegram to the BBC saying that he was still in Sudzha, where there was “panic and collapse of the front”.

Ukrainian troops “try to leave – columns of troops and equipment. Some of them are burned by Russian drones on the road. It is impossible to leave during the day.”

The movement of men, logistics and equipment depended on a major road between Sudzha and the Sumy region of Ukraine.

Volodymyr said it was possible to travel on this road relatively a month ago. On March 9, he was “all under the control of the enemy fire-drones 24 hours a day. In one minute, you can see two to three drones. It is a lot,” he said.

“We have all the logistics here on a Sudzha-Sumy motorway. And everyone knew that the [Russians] would try to cut it. But that again surprised our command. “”

At the time of writing this document, just before Russia returned Sudzha, Volodymyr said that Ukrainian forces were pressed on three sides.

On March 11, Ukrainian forces were fighting to prevent the road from being cut, according to “maksym” telegram messages.

“A few days ago, we were ordered to leave the defense lines in an organized retirement,” he said, adding that Russia had raised significant strength to take over the city, “including a large number of North Korean soldiers”.

Military experts believe that Russia had accumulated a force of up to 70,000 soldiers to take Kursk – including around 12,000 North Koreans.

Russia also sent its best drone units to the front and used suicide bomber and in the first person (FPV) to “take control of fires from the main logistics routes”.

They included drones linked to operators by fiber optic wires – which are impossible to blur with electronic countermeasures.

MAKSYM said that as a result, “the enemy had managed to destroy dozens of equipment units”, and that the wrecks had “created congestion on supply routes”.

The situation that day on March 11 was described as “catastrophic” by “Anton”.

The third soldier whose BBC served at the head office for the Kursk front.

He also underlined the damage caused by Russian FPV drones. “We used to have an advantage in drones, now we don’t do it,” he said. He added that Russia had an advantage with more precise air strikes and a larger number of troops.

Anton said the supply roads had been cut. “Logistics no longer works – organized deliveries of weapons, ammunition, food and water are no longer possible.”

Anton said he had managed to leave Sudzha on foot, at night – “We are almost dead on several occasions. The drones are in the sky all the time.”

The soldier predicted that all of Ukraine’s attention to Kursk would be lost but that “from a military point of view, Kursk’s management has exhausted. There is no interest in keeping it more”.

Western officials believe that the Kursk offensive of Ukraine involved around 12,000 soldiers. They were some of their best trained soldiers, equipped with weapons provided by the West, including tanks and armored vehicles.

Russian bloggers have published videos showing part of this destroyed or captured equipment. On March 13, Russia said that the situation in Kursk was “fully under our control” and that Ukraine had “abandoned” a large part of its equipment.

In the publications on social networks from March 11 to 12, a fourth soldier, “Dmytro” compared the retirement from the front to “a scene from a horror film”.

“The roads are strewn with hundreds of destroyed cars, armored vehicles and mountain bikes (all terrain vehicles). There are many injured and dead.”

Vehicles were often driven out by several drones, he said.

He described his own narrow escape when the car in which he was traveling got bogged down. He and his colleagues soldier were trying to push the free vehicle when they were targeted by another FPV drone.

He missed the vehicle, but injured one of his comrades. He said they had to hide in a forest for two hours before being saved.

Dmytro said many Ukrainians retired on foot with “guys walking from 15 km to 20 km”. The situation, he said, had gone from “difficult and critical for the catastrophic”.

In a message on March 14, Dmytro added: “Everything is finished in the Kursk region … The operation did not succeed.”

He estimated that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers had died since the first visit to Russia in August.

A fifth soldier seemed less dark on the situation. On March 13, “Artem” sent a telegram message from a military hospital, where he was treated for injuries with bursts of shells suffered during a drone attack.

Artem said that he had fought further west – near the village of Loknya where Ukrainian forces put strong resistance and “fight like lions”.

He thought that the operation had achieved some success.

“It is important that so far the armed forces of Ukraine have created this buffer area, thanks to which the Russians cannot enter Sumy,” he said.

The best general in Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, insists that the Ukrainian forces have reduced to “more favorable positions”, remain in Kursk and would do it “as long as it is opportune and necessary”.

He said Russia had undergone more than 50,000 losses during the operation – including those killed, injured or captured.

However, the situation is now very different for last August. Military analysts estimate that two thirds of the 1,000 m² / km won at the start have since been lost.

Everything hopes that Ukraine would be able to exchange the territory of Kursk for some of itself has decreased considerably.

Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he thought that Operation Kursk had “completed his task” by forcing Russia to draw troops from the East and relieve pressure on Pokrovsk.

But it is not yet clear at what cost.