Ukrainian Special Operations Forces operators pose with a captured Russian MT-12 anti-tank howitzer in the Kursk region (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
One of the first Ukrainian soldiers on Russian soil in the Kursk offensive has spoken of the moment his team opened fire on a truckload of enemy troops they caught by surprise.
The Special Operations Forces (SOF) operator said he sensed fear as the elite units went about striking Vladimir Putin’s war machine on its own ground to make way for the incursion.
The offensive is the first time foreign troops have captured ground within Russia’s legal borders since World War Two.
Another parallel with the earlier conflict can be drawn between the small group warfare tactics used by Ukraine’s special forces and the havoc wreaked by Britain’s SAS behind German lines.
Aided by the advance party, Kyiv’s main battlegroup made a rapid advance and now controls hundreds of square kilometres of ground across the border from the Sumy region.
Speaking under the pseudonym ‘Bravo’, the soldier told Metro.co.uk how members of the SOF 8th Regiment carried out the carefully planned ambush which is said to have killed dozens of Russian soldiers.
Special forces operators spring an ambush from a forest in the opening phases of the Kursk incursion (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
Springing the attack from a forest, the team wearing head-to-toe camouflage used assault rifles fitted with suppressors, grenades and a shoulder-launched rocket to obliterate the Russian military vehicle.
‘In such operations, the distance to the enemy is always short,’ Bravo said.
‘But during the ambush, we could feel that the enemy was afraid of us and knew they couldn’t overcome us or escape.
‘That’s exactly what they tried to do but failed.
‘Some enemies tried to escape into the woods, but SOF team members eliminated them, while others covered the pursuit.
‘We saw that the Russians were afraid of us and understood that we could be in any forest and attack them from any direction.
‘This gave us motivation and strength.’
The Ukrainian troops utilise the techniques of cover and fire as they close in on the Russian soldiers (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
The military vehicle erupts in flames after the ambush sprung by a small group of elite Ukrainian troops (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
The military transportation vehicle was left a charred wreck in the aftermath of the attack (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
Reconnaissance carried out by Bravo’s team had given them the route of the enemy truck, which was packed with troops and travelling in broad daylight on a highway through a wooded area.
They had a few minutes to use the element of surprise, opening fire on the enemy personnel before checking the area and the dead Russians and pursuing those who tried to escape.
In bodycam footage the transporter is shown well ablaze before the Ukrainian team calmly moves in to find the corpses of Putin’s soldiers.
A member of the ambush team pulls a Russian patch from the uniform of one of the dead servicemen whose bodies lie around the charred vehicle.
The operators, part of special forces teams who were the first to enter Russia ahead of the Kursk campaign, which began on August 6, then leave the site to execute other missions behind enemy lines.
The ambush killed dozens of enemy troops, Ukraine’s SOF said on X.
Further missions in the salient have involved raids, artillery fire adjustments, destroying electronic warfare and other military vehicles and capturing a Russian MT-12 anti-tank howitzer.
A map showing Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions as of August 12, 2024 (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
In another video, the elite soldiers are shown using whispers and hand signals during missions in the Kursk region, at one point taking six Russian prisoners who are shown being given water as they kneel down with their hands tied behind their backs.
‘When we return for recovery after such missions, I personally have an intense desire to go back into the combat zone and continue destroying the enemy, especially on their own territory,’ Bravo said.
‘But commanders usually assign us more covert missions.”
Much of the SOF work in the Kursk and Belgorod regions is classified but the 8th Regiment operator gave an overview of their role and added that the impact had been ‘noticeable’.
‘We conduct a comprehensive range of operations behind enemy lines,’ he said. ‘This includes reconnaissance and, if conditions allow, eliminating enemy forces on logistical routes.
Some of Ukraine’s most elite troops were involved in preparing the ground for the Kursk offensive (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
‘The Special Operations Forces carry out sabotage, monitor the effectiveness of strikes on critical targets, and assess the aftermath of those strikes.’
Even with thorough operational planning the outcome of operations on enemy ground is hard to predict, Bravo said.
However the teams do not lack experience of operating on enemy ground, which has involved taking part in some of the defining moments of the full-scale war to date, including the liberation of Snake Island.
‘SOF teams perform 24/7 aerial reconnaissance, identifying enemy artillery, air defence, electronic warfare and signals intelligence systems, and various command posts and depots,’ Bravo explained.
‘The strikes follow, I think the impact is noticeable.’
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In the counter-offensive, the brief has resulted in the destruction of Russian ammunition depots and the neutralisation of electronic warfare and reconnaissance systems, as well as enemy command posts.
‘All SOF elements, from FPV [first-person-view] drone pilots to sniper teams, work together toward a common goal,’ Bravo said.
‘We are well-prepared fighters, and we always keep everything under our control, knowing the enemy is everywhere around us.
‘I also know these missions behind enemy lines motivate all the Ukrainian defenders. Especially when we see Russian forces destroy their own cities and villages, and not Ukrainian ones.’
The Kursk operation has had ‘theatre-wide impacts’ on Russian offensive operations in Ukraine, according to the country’s military intelligence chief Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov.
A Ukrainian Special Operations Forces operator with a ‘trophy’ machine gun (Picture: Archive image, Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi has said the objectives include preventing Russia from launching its own attack from Kursk, diverting Moscow’s forces, creating a security zone and preventing shelling, taking prisoners of war and lifting Ukrainian morale.
While Western commentators differ on the campaign’s success and prospects, with Putin’s war machine continuing to grind along in the east, the Kremlin has taken weeks to organise a coherent response.
The respected US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on Wednesday that Russian forces are counter-attacking along the western edge of the Ukrainian presence.
Kyiv’s forces had launched a push back of their own, according to information assessed by the ISW.
On the ground, Bravo believes that the special forces raids have delivered a wider morale boost.
‘The guys got a fresh dose of motivation, moving forward and destroying the enemy, savouring the small victories the whole world can see,’ he said.
The number of Russian military personnel killed and wounded daily increased to 1,187 a day in August, according to the Ukraine’s General Staff.
No figure was given for Ukrainian casualties.
The UK Ministry of Defence said that the rise was ‘almost certainly’ due to the Kursk campaign and pressure on the Pokrovsk axis in the east.
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