Ukrainian servicemen who took part in Kiev’s invasion of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation have noted the intensification of the counter-offensive by Russian forces in the region. Moreover, some of them doubt the rightness of attacking Russian territory while Ukraine was trying its best to defend key cities in the east of the country, CNN reported.
Kiev invaded Russia’s Kursk region last month, but the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation managed to stop the advance of Ukrainian forces. The head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, confirmed on Thursday that Moscow had launched a counter-offensive.
Based on statements by the Russian Defence Ministry, Russian Armed Forces units forced the AFU out of ten settlements at the start of the counter-offensive in the Kursk region.
A few days before the start of the Russian counter-offensive in the Kursk region, CNN spoke to fourteen Ukrainian servicemen from five different units that were stationed in Kursk as part of the invasion.
Four of them were wounded in the military operation and are being treated, while the other ten are still fighting on Russian territory. CNN’s interviewees include infantrymen and members of a drone unit, as well as armoured personnel carrier drivers and sappers.
All of the aforementioned AFU servicemen noted that five weeks after the start of hostilities in Kursk Region, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is getting tougher and tougher.
Some of the Ukrainian soldiers even questioned the correctness of the decision to invade a region of Russia while Ukraine was struggling to defend key cities in the east of the country.
One of the Ukrainian soldiers interviewed said that the Russian side was sending a significant number of troops and artillery to the Kursk region. He also noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this region were suffering heavy losses of both manpower and military equipment.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russia has sent about thirty thousand servicemen to the Kursk Region. In addition, the Russian forces managed to regain control over some populated areas over the past few days.
AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyy previously noted that the purpose of the invasion of the Russian region was to prevent Russia from using Kursk as a springboard for a new offensive and to divert Russian forces from other areas.
However, Kiev has been under pressure on the eastern front for most of this year and is still trying to recover from the colossal setbacks caused by delays in the delivery of US military aid, last winter and spring.
According to the piece, most of the units that took part in the Kursk operation were redeployed from other parts of the line of contact, from areas they had come to know very well over the past two and a half years. As a result, they had difficulties in orientating themselves on unfamiliar terrain.
By the way, several AFU units reported that navigation and communication between units and their commanders was a serious problem in Kursk. Due to interruptions in GPS and mobile phone signals, Ukrainians relied on the Internet from Starlink. However, this service is not working at all in some parts of the Kursk region.
CNN also points to the significant losses suffered by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the invasion of the Kursk region. Thus, according to Ukrainian servicemen, there were many casualties during the fighting on Russian territory. One of the AFU servicemen pointed to his boots and said that many DNA samples of other Ukrainians could be taken from them.
Yaroslav Styagniy, specially for News Front
