What 'holding Kursk' really means

Eyewitness testimony tells a dark story

Since the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk started on August 6, the news has been full of stories of a “secretive”, “audacious and bold” Ukrainian attack that has “seized Russian territory”¹, and “taken Russia by surprise”. But what was the point of the incursion? The Ukrainians can’t have believed they were going to annex the territory, but Zelensky said the purpose was to use Kursk as a “bargaining chip” in negotiations with Russia - an absurd statement, considering that in 2022 he signed a decree explicitly prohibiting negotiations with Russia, at least while Putin is in charge.

I’m not a military person and I’m no military analyst, but I listen to people with experience and contacts in the military like former US Marine Brian Berletic of The New Atlas and former Soviet naval officer Andrei Martyanov of SmoothieX12 YouTube channel and blog. Martyanov often makes the point that it is unhelpful to seize upon minutiae like individual towns being taken by one side or another, when trying to assess the overall military position. A site like Live UA Map (which is somewhat pro-Ukrainian) gives a better overview of the unfolding military picture.

Something that is useful for getting a feel for what is going on, however, are testimonies from civilians and soldiers who have experienced what the Ukrainians have been doing while they have occupied Kursk. In my previous post on the topic I shared some very incriminating videos that Ukrainian troops had recorded themselves, as well as video of captured Ukrainian troops and some testimony from traumatised civilians.

At the end of August, Ambassador for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rodion Miroshnik said on RIA Novosti that civilians fleeing from Kursk had reported hearing English spoken, and that the Ukrainian troops they encountered “with some humanity left” had warned them to leave because “the Poles are coming behind us; they won’t spare you”:

Yesterday, a video appeared online made by a Russian soldier who had encountered another wounded soldier who had come back from Kursk. The wounded soldier told him that around Kursk the bulk of the attackers were Georgian, Polish and French, and that in the process of clearing these soldiers out, they had come across 8 children hanged in a barn:

The Ukrainians weren’t exaggerating when they said “they won’t spare you”. It’s reminiscent of the Russian serviceman who testified that he had come across a child organ harvesting operation in Izyum. The horrors are unimaginable, on a par with those committed by the Nazis during WW2.

If this kind of testimony existed from the other side, it would be front and centre in our news. It’s not. This is the reality of ‘the Kursk incursion’, of Nazism, and of imperialism writ large. It’s good that it’s going to lose.

1. An article that ponders “what the incursion tells us about Putin’s Russia” even makes the observation that this was the first time that Russia has been invaded since WW2 - and who invaded them that time?