Offensive in Kursk Will Putin's embarrassment become a trap for Ukrainian soldiers?

For Putin, it was an embarrassment that in August, for the first time since the Second World War, enemy troops advanced into Russian territory. However, many Ukrainian soldiers are now wondering what the point is.

Five months after the start of the Ukrainian surprise attack on the Russian region of Kursk, the danger of Kiev's defeat is growing ever greater. The fighting is so fierce that some Ukrainian commanders are no longer able to recover their dead. The soldiers are demoralized. They hardly have a chance to counterattack, frontline soldiers and commanders tell the AP news agency.

Since Russia was caught off guard by the Ukrainians' lightning advance, it has amassed more than 50,000 soldiers in the region, including thousands from its ally North Korea. Exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, but Moscow's counterattack has left thousands dead and wounded. The Ukrainians have lost more than 40 percent of the 984 square kilometers they captured in the Kursk region in August.

Situation picture Ukraine50,000 North Koreans and Russians to recapture Kursk

"Reaching into a hornet's nest"

Some Ukrainians want to hold on to the area at all costs, while others question the purpose of the entire operation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had expressed the hope that the advance to Kursk would force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. However, five Ukrainian and Western sources in Kiev expressed concern that the operation could weaken the entire 1000-kilometer front line and cause Ukraine to lose valuable ground in the east. "We have, as they say, stirred up a hornet's nest. We have stirred up another trouble spot," said Stepan Luziw, a major in the 95th Airborne Brigade.

Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyj said in August that Ukraine had launched the operation because it assumed that Russia was planning a new attack on north-eastern Ukraine. The operation began on August 5 with the order to leave the Ukrainian region of Sumy for a nine-day operation designed to overwhelm the enemy.

In the meantime, it is an occupation. Many Ukrainians welcome it because it has given their country leverage and embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin. A company commander called his men together at the time and told them: "We are making history; the whole world will know about us, because there hasn't been anything like this since the Second World War." No enemy troops had been on Russian territory since 1945.

Surprised by his own success

Secretly, the commander was less sure. "It seemed crazy to me," he says today. "I didn't understand why."

The Ukrainians, surprised by their own success, were ordered to advance beyond the original objectives to the town of Korenevo, 25 kilometers deep in Russia. It was one of the first places where the Russian troops launched a counterattack. At the beginning of November, the Russians began to rapidly recapture territory, while the Ukrainians had to accept losses and morale among the troops sank. The commander of one company said that half of his men were dead or wounded.

Some commanders at the front said conditions were difficult, morale was low and soldiers questioned the command's decisions. Another commander reported that some of the orders his men had received no longer corresponded to reality due to delays in communication. There were problems especially when the Russians conquered territory. "They don't understand where our side is, where the enemy is, what is under our control and what is not," he says. "They don't understand the operational situation, so we act at our own discretion."

A platoon leader says he asked his superiors to adjust his unit's positions because his men could not hold their current line. But this was refused. "Those who hold out to the end are reported missing at the end," says the commander. He also knows of at least 20 Ukrainian soldiers whose bodies have been left behind over the past four months because the fighting was too intense to recover them without further casualties.

Ukrainian soldiers admit that they are not prepared for the aggressive Russian reaction in Kursk. They could neither launch a counterattack nor withdraw. "There is no other option. We will fight here, because if we simply retreat to our borders, they will not stop, but will continue to advance," says a commander of a drone unit.

When asked by AP, the Ukrainian General Staff explained that the combat units were inflicting daily losses on the Russians in terms of personnel and equipment and were equipped with "everything necessary" to carry out combat tasks. "The troops are led according to situational awareness and operational information, taking into account the operational situation in the areas where the tasks are carried out," the response said.

Longer-range weapons from the USA have slowed the Russian advance. North Korean soldiers who joined the fighting in November are easy targets for drones and artillery, according to Ukrainian troops, because they lack combat discipline and often move in large groups in open terrain.

North Koreans learn from their mistakes

Selenskyj said on Monday that 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded so far. However, Ukrainian soldiers report that the North Koreans are apparently learning from their mistakes and are becoming better at camouflaging themselves.

Last week, there was a battle in a forest area between the settlements of Kremenne and Vorontsovo, which Ukrainian troops were occupying. In the meantime, they have lost part of the area to the Russian forces and the Ukrainian troops fear that the Russians will reach an important logistics route.

At the same time, Russian forces are making gains in the Ukrainian region of Donbass, where they are closing in on an important supply hub. In view of this, Ukrainian soldiers are wondering whether the operation in Kursk was worthwhile at all. "All the military can think about now is that the Donbass has simply been sold," says the platoon leader. "At what price?"