Five months after Ukrainian forces swept across the border in the first ground invasion of Russia since World War II, the two sides are engaged in the war’s deadliest clash there over land and influence in the conflict. .
The intensity of the fighting is reminiscent of the worst siege in eastern Ukraine over the past three years, including in the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, whose names now evoke memories of the massacre of soldiers on both sides.
The fighting in Russia’s Kursk region has taken on added significance given the region’s potential role in ceasefire negotiations. Faced with the prospect of an unpredictable new US president who has vowed to end the war quickly without specifying terms, Ukraine wants to use Russian territory as a bargaining chip.
Russia hopes to rely on North Korean reinforcements to force its territory out of Ukrainian hands.
“Here, the Russians need to take this territory at all costs and are doing everything in their power to do so, while we are doing everything in our power to hold on to this territory,” said Sgt. Oleksandr, 46, leader of a Ukrainian infantry platoon. “We keep holding on and destroying and destroying and destroying. It’s so hard to even understand.”
He and other soldiers, who asked to be identified only by their first names or call signs in accordance with military protocol, said the fighting had become much more intense than before due to waves of North Korean infantry attacks.
“The situation worsened significantly when the North Koreans started arriving,” said Staff Sergeant John Rodger. Oleksey, 30 years old, platoon leader. “They are putting pressure on our front line all at once, finding weaknesses and breaking through.”
With the help of an estimated 12,000 North Koreans, Russia has regained about half of the territory it lost over the summer. Its attacks over the past week have further eroded Ukrainian-held territory.
But Ukrainian forces have also been on the offensive in recent days, trying to secure an area west of the small Russian town of Suzha, about nine miles from the border, which is home to Ukrainian troops who captured about 200 square miles in August. It is said that .
“If they keep putting pressure on us and we don’t fight back, the enemy will feel superior,” said Andriy, 44, a military intelligence officer. “If someone keeps hitting you and you don’t fight back, the attacker becomes psychologically comfortable and may even relax.”
Russian forces have largely thwarted the attack, but fighting continues and the situation remains uncertain, soldiers said.
The intensity of the fighting could be seen even on the roads approaching the Russian border. One after another, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other vehicles passed by the destroyed and blown-up equipment.
Russian bombs and rockets were seen exploding furiously in border villages, while Ukrainian missiles were seen streaking across the sky in the opposite direction.
Tens of thousands of drones also tracked the targets. Ukraine has improved its electronic warfare capabilities and limited the effectiveness of drones that rely on radio signals, which have transformed the battlefield. Russia is now flooding theaters with drones that are guided by tiny fiber-optic cables and have a flight range of more than 10 miles.
Ukrainian soldiers say their best defense against them at the moment is shotguns.
The new battle faces a highly uncertain political backdrop. U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump spent months campaigning to question U.S. military aid to Ukraine. He has said he wants to end the war quickly, but has not specified how.
Russian forces have been on the offensive in eastern Ukraine for more than a year, continuing to make steady advances despite staggering losses.
In response to the invasion, Ukraine aims to create a buffer zone to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city of Sumy, within 32 miles of its border with Russia. Ukraine also hopes to ease pressure on the Eastern Front by drawing Russians back to their country.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the election campaign sent a strong message to the world that Ukraine can do more than defend itself.
“This is one of our victories, one of the biggest victories not only of last year but of the entire war,” Zelenskiy said Thursday, meeting in Germany with representatives of countries providing military aid to Ukraine. I think so.”
Still, some military analysts warn that Operation Kursk could force Ukraine to further expand its forces and potentially cause it to lose ground in the eastern Donbas region.
Many soldiers fighting in Kursk believe that without their operations, the devastating losses in eastern Ukraine would have been even worse.
“We need to understand that the Russians are using the most elite soldiers and the best reserves in the region,” said Capt. Oleksandr Shirsin, 30, a battalion commander with the 47th Mechanized Brigade. “That’s good considering what they’re doing in other parts of Ukraine.”
His eyes were still cloudy after the battle to stop a large-scale Russian attack a few days ago.
Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions in six waves with more than 50 tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles.
Captain Shirsin said the Russian forces advanced several miles, with dozens of enemy soldiers killed and wounded and a large amount of Russian equipment destroyed.
“When the first wave comes, we focus on it and deal with it, and then the next wave comes,” he said. There is no time to redirect artillery and other resources as the next wave comes in from a different line of attack.
“We’re falling behind,” he said. “Then the next wave comes and one of them manages to reach the required section and accomplish the mission.”
He said it remains difficult for many in the West to view the Ukraine war as a video game and not understand the threat Russia poses to the world.
He acknowledged that almost three years of war had weakened Ukrainian morale, but said most soldiers still understood why they had to fight. “Stopping means our death, that’s all,” he said.
Some Ukrainian soldiers said North Korea’s entry into the war should alarm European countries and their allies.
They say the North Korean army fights as a disciplined, dedicated and fearless force, moving in large formations on foot through minefields under heavy artillery fire and pursuit from drones. is said to be the norm. Ukrainian authorities announced Saturday that Ukrainian forces had captured two North Korean soldiers, the first time they had ever been captured alive.
Oleksandr, commander of the sergeant’s platoon, said the massacre in Kursk was as horrific as anything he had witnessed since joining the army in 2014.
“When you look at how many people we kill every day, you never quite know where you are,” he said.
He compared it to Bahmut, whose machine gunners could not cope with the pace of killing and had to be replaced regularly. “After letting so many people lie down for two hours, they couldn’t bear it mentally,” he said.
“It’s still the same here,” he said while sharing cellphone video of the aftermath of a recent assault. The fields were littered with corpses, torn, twisted and piled up, making it difficult to count the dead.
“The worst are the infantry,” he said. “You sit there and they come at you and everything comes flying at you.”
Anastasia Kuznietswa Contributed to the report.
