Four months after Ukraine’s offensive on the Russian region of Kursk, text messages from soldiers the BBC has been receiving, paints a bleak picture.
The soldiers are encumbered with fatigue and strained with sleeplessness because of terrifying 3,000 kg glide bombs. And now, as the winter stings, the only silver lining they can see amidst the grey – Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The Ukrainian soldiers have lost their morale and the war isn’t even about capturing anymore. It is about holding, and the soldiers say, “we’re struggling a bit with that.”
While both Russia and Ukraine await the president-elect Trump taking office, the latter is trying to hold maximum territory until Trump’s inauguration. “The main task facing us is to hold the maximum territory until Trump’s inauguration and the start of negotiations,” Dmytro said. “In order to exchange it for something later. No-one knows what.”
The one thing that remains constant apart from the immense pressure from the enemy is the loss of motivation.
With the war having been escalated, now the US, UK and France have all permitted Ukraine to use long-range weapons inside Russia, but that didn’t do much for their spirits. “We live and fight here and now. And missiles fly somewhere else”, Dmytro added.
The soldiers said that even if Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles proved effective somewhere, these successes hardly mean anything in the trenches. “We don’t talk about missiles. In the bunkers we talk about family and rotation. About simple things”, Marko said.
Regarding the North Korean troops set to join the Russian side, the soldiers BBC spoke with seemed to have no contact with. “I haven’t seen or heard anything about Koreans, alive or dead,” Andriy said.
The soldiers have been told to capture at least one North Korean soldier with documents. Apparently, there are rewards such as drones and leaves for anyone who successfully captures a North Korean soldier.
Ukrainian soldiers will hold out at Kursk for “as long as it is feasible from the military point of view”, since it is reaping military and political rewards for them and also since the situation in Kursk and heavy losses for Russia “annoys Putin”.
The names in this article are not real.