Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralised by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all.
Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders cannot evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counter-attack.
Since being caught unaware by the lightning Ukrainian incursion, Russia has amassed more than 50,000 troops in the region, including some from its ally North Korea.
Precise numbers are hard to obtain, but Moscow’s counter-attack has killed and injured thousands and the overstretched Ukrainians have lost more than 40% of the 380 square miles of Kursk they seized in August.
Its full-scale invasion three years ago left Russia holding a fifth of Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hinted he hopes controlling Kursk will help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.
But five Ukrainian and Western officials in Kyiv who spoke on condition of anonymity said they fear gambling on Kursk will weaken the whole 621-mile front line, and Ukraine is losing precious ground in the east.
“We have, as they say, hit a hornet’s nest. We have stirred up another hot spot,” said Stepan Lutsiv, a major in the 95th Airborne Assault Brigade.
Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has said Ukraine launched the operation because officials thought Russia was about to launch a new attack on north-east Ukraine.
It began on August 5 with an order to leave Ukraine’s Sumy region for what they thought would be a nine-day raid to stun the enemy. It became an occupation that Ukrainians welcomed as their smaller country gained leverage and embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Gathering his men, one company commander told them: “We’re making history; the whole world will know about us because this hasn’t been done since World War Two.”
Privately, he was less certain.
“It seemed crazy,” he said. “I didn’t understand why.”
Shocked by success achieved largely because the Russians were caught by surprise, the Ukrainians were ordered to advance beyond the original mission to the town of Korenevo, 16 miles into Russia. That was one of the first places where Russian troops counter-attacked.
By early November the Russians began regaining territory rapidly. Once in awe of what they accomplished, Ukrainian troops’ opinions are shifting as they come to terms with losses. The company commander said half of his troops are dead or wounded.
One platoon commander said higher ups have repeatedly turned down his requests to change his unit’s defensive position because he knows his men cannot hold the line.
“Those people who stand until the end are ending up MIA,” he said.
He said he also knows of at least 20 Ukrainian soldiers whose bodies had been abandoned over the last four months because the battles were too intense to evacuate them without more casualties.
American longer-range weapons have slowed the Russian advance and North Korean soldiers who joined the fighting last month are easy targets for drones and artillery because they lack combat discipline and often move in large groups in the open, Ukrainian troops said.
On Monday, Mr Zelensky said 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and injured. But they appear to be learning from their mistakes, soldiers added, by becoming more adept at camouflaging near forested lines.
One clash took place last week near Vorontsovo tract, a forested area between the settlements of Kremenne and Vorontsovo.
Until last week, the area was under Ukraine’s control. This week part of it has been lost to Russian forces and Ukrainian troops fear they will reach a crucial logistics route.
Eyeing frontline losses in the eastern region known as the Donbas – where Russia is closing on a crucial supply hub – some soldiers are more vocal about whether Kursk has been worth it.
“All the military can think about now is that Donbas has simply been sold,” the platoon commander said. “At what price?”
