uConstant attacks from drones attached to fiber optic cables scrambled in groups that passed two or three or fields along hidden tracks, often walking miles on foot to return to Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine's retreat from the Kursk region, which took place in stages over the past two weeks, appears to mark the end of one of the conflict's most audacious and surprising operations, stripping Ukraine of one of its smallest solid negotiation tips in the possibility of peace negotiations with Russia.
For seven months, Ukraine held a mass of Russian territory, including the town of Scow, about 5,000, the first time foreign troops had occupied Russian land since World War II.
Russia has pushed back Ukrainian troops with the help of North Korean forces, and in recent weeks pressure on Ukrainian position has been overwhelming. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin wore military fatigue to visit the region's command office, and on Thursday Russia announced that it had regained full control of Suda.
The Ukrainian army continues to hold several villages remaining in Kursk, but soldiers involved in the operation said it is probably only a matter of time before the retreat ends.
“Russians are already pushing into the Smie region [in Ukraine]all tasks are defensive right now,” said Serei, the special operations commander who recently left the area.
Putin's request for Russian troops to create a “buffer zone” near the border suggests that Russian attacks could be pushed back to Ukraine, and authorities have already evacuated several settlements near the border.
The seven-month business ends with a mixed assessment in Ukraine, some say they have achieved many of their goals, while others say it is a distraction from the efforts of the Main War and wondering whether Ukrainian lives will be able to make concrete benefits.
“Kursk expelled conflicts on Russian territory, and Russia used some of its best units to fight for it, but also needed a considerable number of Ukrainian elite units to hold the pockets.”
Now, Russian attacks may change the dynamics of war once again at the moment when the US is urging Moscow and Kiev to sign a ceasefire agreement. “My concern is that this will give the Kremlin and the Russian army a new match of enthusiasm and adrenaline,” said Voldimi Fesenko, a political analyst based in Kiev.
The first invasion of Kursk came in August last year. It was planned to hold the element of surprise by a very small circle, and Kiev didn't even simplify the Western allies until the surgery progressed. The troops arrived in nearby Sami in small groups, many staying in rental apartments.
Documents recovered from the Russian Army's position show that Moscow's military planners had been warning of the threat of invasion for months, but when it came, the Ukrainian forces could overrun Russia's position and take hundreds of prisoners.
In Sudzha, officials and police fled without destroying or even stealing sensitive documents, leaving them to be seized and sent to Kiev for analysis.
Those with knowledge of the planning say Ukrainian officials were surprised at how well the early stages of the operation went, as Ukraine controlled about 500 square miles within a few days.
“Initially, the idea was just to create a shift and pull the troops out of Donbas. But it was better than I expected and all of a sudden we were digging in,” one source said.
“I don't want to occupy this territory,” Zelensky's aide Mikhailo Podraick told the Guardian in late August. “Our job is to further alienate Russian cannons and other systems, destroy the warehouses and other military infrastructure there, and also affect Russian public opinion,” he said.
However, for the first time in the war, the shoes were on the other foot, and Ukraine became the right to occupation. The Ukrainian army took journalists on a reporter tour in Suda. There, surprised locals couldn't believe that the war they saw on their television screen had arrived in Russian territory. Sumy's historian recorded a podcast at the small historical museum in Sudzha, explaining how Sudzha and the rest of the region are historically Ukrainian lands.
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At one point there was a plan to ask the Russians fighting alongside Ukraine to enter the area and take over the functions of the police. The idea was to troll Russia. Russia had hidden the 2014 intervention in Donbas as the job of Ukrainian separatists. However, the plan was quickly discarded as an instigation that would not work.
With the capture of hundreds of prisoners, Ukraine provided exchanges and allowed captured Ukrainians to be brought home in Russian prisons, and the operation was also believed to have boosted morale to the Ukrainian military and society after months of set-up.
Finally, it became clear that the longer the Ukrainian army was and the more it was kept on land, the end of the operation game would be an opportunity to use Kursk as a card in future negotiations. Zelensky told the Guardian last month that Kiev will “swap one territory for another.”
But over time, Russia has increased pressure on the Ukrainian position in the region. By the beginning of this year, Ukrainian military planners could see Russia making sustained efforts to concentrate their forces in the direction of Kursk.
“It all goes to Kursk,” one military source said in early February. “In the beginning they seemed not to pay much attention to it, but then the North Koreans came. And from the beginning of the year they've thrown everything on Kursk.
Some of Russia's best drone units have moved to the Kursk Theater. Russia has begun using fiber optic drones as the Ukrainian military can use radio jammers to block Russian FPV (first person view) drones. This spools thin cables over a few miles and is immune to jummers.
“The field we are retreating is like a spider web with all the fiber optic cables,” said Special Operations Commander Serei.
He criticized the failure of Russians to build a net around the main road between Smie and Sudhaja to protect it from drones, as did the Russians in part of the front in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. “In the last two weeks they started trying to do this, but now it's too dangerous. They should have done it in September, October, when everything was settling,” he said.
Ukrainian officials say that, ultimately, the operation did not provide the expected negotiation tip, but could change the narrative of the war, but when sadness over the Ukrainian outlook for any kind of advancement was already set, they say that the withdrawal may have been interrupted, but it was not life-stricken or very broken without stubborn loss.
“Seven months later, we simply retreated. There was no siege,” one security officer portrays the operation as a success. “There were political, military goals. They were able to move the military from Pokrovsk. [in Donetsk] To Kursk. And we showed how shameful it was to the Russians. They showed they could not fight Ukraine without North Korea,” the official said.
Others received a more complicated evaluation, noting that the offensive growth had grown Ukraine's already under-staffed troops and did not slow Russia's advance in the east of the country. “It was a tactical success, but the attacks have largely changed due to the overall dynamics of this war and have failed to meet the broader operational targets,” Coffman said.
