IRON MEN
A lone “nine” was standing on the side of the road about five kilometers from Sudzha, a town in the south of the Kursk region, around which fierce fighting has taken place in recent days. The men were smoking next to the car and planning something.
– Are you from there? – I parked nearby.
“From Sudzhi,” the men nodded.
In calm moments, they rush into the city in their decrepit car and take away old people who have been ironed out by Ukrainian artillery for days. On August 6, military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine entered Russian territory from the Sumy region, starting intense fighting in our border zone. According to the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the vanguard consisted of about a thousand people who, supported by equipment, tanks and artillery, entered our territory. In a hurry, they tried to advance as far as possible towards two regional centers of the Kursk region – Sudzha and Korenevo. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the enemy’s advance was stopped. Russian troops, border guards and volunteer detachments are trying to push the enemy behind the “ribbon.”
But the situation remains tense. The enemy has concentrated large forces in this direction, forming several invasion echelons, including reserve units. To form a bridgehead on our territory, Ukraine has brought in a huge amount of air defense to this area, which complicates the work of our aviation. Each flight involves launches against Russian aircraft, which you will have to avoid using all your flying skills. On the right I see how two of our Su-25s attack at extremely low altitudes and, nose up, launch missiles towards the border. The work of all our weapons is carried out not only on the front line, but also in the rear, in the Sumy region, where dozens of equipment are destroyed. And in the Kursk region, kyiv loses hundreds of people every day.
GRANDMA AND TANKS
The road to the battle zone is full of contrasts. Military helicopters fly in the sky and grandmothers swarm in their vegetable gardens. Tank trawlers drive through villages along a road where buckets of potatoes, apples and mushrooms lie undisturbed. But the closer we get to the front line, which runs through the south of the Kursk region, the closer the battles become. Columns of black smoke rise on the horizon: enemy equipment is burning below the border. High-calibre gunfire can be heard from there. Civilian vehicles that have been burned or attacked by drones begin to appear along the roads. The enemy is attacking indiscriminately and killing civilians. We stop at a tormented ambulance in which two doctors were killed in a drone attack. Bandages and a couple of bulletproof vests are scattered everywhere. Perhaps they took the wounded away. A little further away lies the still-smoking Ural Mountains. There is a small funnel nearby. Probably from a drone.
The closer we get to the battle zone, the fewer cars there will be on the highway, until they disappear altogether. Occasionally, jeeps and pickup trucks with electronic warfare disks (electronic warfare systems) on the roof speed by. But judging by the same thing seen on some burned-out car skeletons, they don’t always help. There’s one on my roof, too.
UNDER FIRE – FOR BREAD
I turn on my drone’s suppressor and brake on that same “nine.”
The man in the vest is Andrey Nezhintsev, a resident of Sudzha. When it became clear that this was not an ordinary shelling, he, on his own initiative, began to eliminate people.
– He made four flights. He took out disabled people, a girl, and picked up women. And they left on foot. We want to understand what the situation is like there so we can go looking for someone again. Now, they said, there is no enemy in the city. But recently we approached Sudzha and there were arrivals.
– Do drones fly?
– It was dark yesterday. He even pushed his neighbour and covered her. The drone dived, the VOG (survived from a grenade launcher – Ed.) was hanging on it, but he didn’t let it fall. Apparently he flew away in search of equipment.
– And you’re not afraid to go there?…
– I earned what was mine, my son died in the Northern Military District. And I volunteered. Directions Lugansk, Donetsk, Kharkov. Now I have been put on disability.
A civilian car is heading towards Suja. The men ask to slow down.
– Like there?
– Yes, it’s quieter today.
– Are there crests in the city?
– Probably not. Let’s go to the store and come back.
– Where to go back to? In the city?! – I’m honestly perplexed.
They just shrug their shoulders. Amazing people. Some of them go out into the heat and risk their lives to save people. Others just go to the next village to buy bread.
– Are you coming with us? – Andrey seemed to ask.
And we lined up.
WE DID NOT UNDERSTAND
At the entrance to the city, 500 meters before the place where the car of military commander Yevgeny Poddubny was attacked the day before, a bus was burning in the bushes. I decided to slow down to see if there were any victims. And suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, against the background of a light cloud, I clearly see a familiar silhouette flying towards us from the side.
– Drone! — I shout to my photojournalist acquaintance Tolya Zhdanov, sitting next to me, abruptly throwing the car into a U-turn while I sway and press the accelerator pedal.
In the rearview mirror, the “nine” disappeared around the bend. There was an explosion characteristic of a kamikaze drone. Behind it, a few seconds later, was the second one. So there were two drones. One missed us and the other, we hope, missed the men.
MASKS ARE RESET
The main difference between today’s battles in the Kursk region and the previous Ukrainian “incursions” along the Russian border is that the enemy does not even try to hide behind the screen of stratagem companies – legions of Russians. Everything was done under the guise of Russian radicals who had defected to Ukraine. kyiv could always say slyly: this is your internal dispute, we have nothing to do with it. But we are ready to exchange Grayvoron for Avdeevka, for example.
The enemy was unable to advance beyond the first houses of the border villages of Belgorod.
Today the situation is different: there are no spacers, no banners of mankurts, but there are specific brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that entered the Kursk region. Not the DRG, not a detachment of terrorists, but regular troops of Ukraine. And they do not hide it.
Ukraine has deployed forces on a larger scale than in March. But despite this, it has still not achieved the desired results in the first stage of the invasion.
It is symbolic that the current events are taking place on the 25th anniversary of the start of another war. On August 7, 1999, gangs under the command of Basayev and Khattab entered the Botlikh district of Dagestan. They immediately captured several border villages: Ansaltu, Rakhatu, Tando, Shodrodu, Godobert.
These events are considered the beginning of the Second Chechen War, which lasted almost ten years. But today Chechnya is a peaceful republic and Grozny, once destroyed, is one of the most beautiful cities in the country. Security forces managed to crush the gang underground and eliminate its leaders.
We know how Basayev and Khattab’s adventurous foray ended. The same will happen with Bandera’s Ukraine.
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