Fierce fighting in Kursk "Stopping would mean our death"

The fighting in the Russian region of Kursk is becoming increasingly fierce. Putin wants to recapture the area as quickly as possible with help from North Korea - also with a view to possible negotiations.

When Ukrainian combat units invaded the Russian region of Kursk in the summer, the whole world was astonished. For the first time since the Second World War, enemy soldiers were back on Russian territory - an embarrassment for President Vladimir Putin.

Four months later, Ukrainian and Russian troops are still fighting for every square meter of land in Kursk. If Kiev's troops continue to hold on to Russian territory, this could still play an important role in possible ceasefire negotiations.

In view of the prospect of an unpredictable new US president - who has promised to end the war "in a day" without clarifying the conditions - Ukraine hopes to be able to use Russian territory as a bargaining chip, writes the New York Times.

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Help from North Korea

Putin wants to recapture Kursk as quickly as possible for the same reasons - and is also getting help from North Korea. "The Russians have to take this area at all costs and are putting all their forces into it, while we are doing everything we can to hold it," the leader of a Ukrainian infantry platoon tells the newspaper.

Numerous Ukrainian soldiers report fierce and bitter fighting in enemy territory. With the arrival of the North Korean troops, the fighting intensified once again.

"The situation deteriorated significantly when the North Koreans arrived," says 30-year-old Oleksiir. "They are exerting mass pressure on our fronts, finding weak points and breaking through them."

With shotguns against drones

With the help of around 12,000 North Koreans, Russia has now managed to recapture around half of the territory it lost in the summer.

The fierce fighting is clearly visible in the area: a steady stream of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles rolls past broken and blown up war material.

Meanwhile, Russian bombs explode with tremendous force in the border villages. Ukrainian missiles fly in the other direction. Russia has literally littered the war zone with drones. The best defense against them is currently a shotgun, say the Ukrainian soldiers.

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The Russian armed forces have been on the offensive in eastern Ukraine for over a year and have been making steady advances despite alarmingly high losses. With the invasion of Kursk, Ukraine wants to create a buffer zone to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city of Sumy, which is less than 30 kilometers from the border with Russia. Kiev also wants to reduce the pressure on the eastern front by pushing the Russians back onto their own land.

While Selenskyj presents the Kursk incursion as a great success, military experts are already warning that the Ukrainian armed forces are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the Kursk campaign and could lose ground in the eastern Donbass region.

"We are falling behind"

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk are convinced that the painful losses in eastern Ukraine would have been even worse without their deployment. You have to understand that Russia is deploying its best elite soldiers and reserve soldiers in this area, says Captain Oleksandr Shyrshyn, battalion commander of the 47th Mechanized Brigade.

Shyrshyn is still scarred by the heavy fighting of the past few days. According to him, Russian troops attacked their positions in six waves, using more than 50 tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles. "When the first wave comes, we concentrate on it, take care of it, and then the next one comes," says the commander, adding: "We are falling behind."

It remains hard to stomach, he said, that so many people in the West view the war in Ukraine like a video game and refuse to recognize the threat Russia poses to the world.

While he acknowledged that the morale of Ukrainians had fallen in the almost three years of war, he also emphasized that most soldiers still knew why they had to fight. "Quitting would mean our death, that's all," he says.

Machine gunners need to be replaced

"You look and you can't even comprehend where you are when you see how many people we destroy every day," says platoon leader Oleksandr, comparing the fighting in Kursk with the battle for Bachmut.

There, machine gunners had to be replaced regularly because they couldn't cope with the pace of the killings. "After killing so many people for two hours, they couldn't take it anymore psychologically."

"It's the same here now," he says, showing a cell phone video: The field littered with bodies, torn and twisted and piled up in such a way that it was difficult to count the dead.

It was worst for the infantry, says Oleksandr. "When you're sitting there and they're coming at you and everything is flying at you."