Footage shows Kiev’s forces in the Russian region retreating under heavy pressure
Russian forces appear to be pushing Ukrainian troops back in a Kiev-controlled area of Russia’s Kursk Region, footage circulating online purports to show. The Russian Defense Ministry has not confirmed the counteroffensive.
A pro-Russian Telegram channel released on Wednesday clips that it claims show the achievements of the 51st Guard Regiment of the Russian Airborne Troops near the settlement of Snagost.
Kiev deployed thousands of heavily armed troops for its operation on Russian soil. According to the Russian military, Ukrainian casualties have surpassed 10,000 during the month-long incursion.
The longest video was filmed from a drone and shows what appears to be a battle in a rural area involving multiple armored vehicles.
Another one purports to show a group of Ukrainian POWs walking down a road. Some of them are holding their hands behind their heads while others prop up an injured comrade.
The third video shows what are presumably the same people claiming that they had been taken prisoner by Russian airborne troops and that the other soldiers who did not surrender had been killed.
Snagost has been mentioned by the Russian Defense Ministry as a location where fighting against the invading Ukrainian troops has been taking place on a regular basis. It is located roughly 7km southeast of the Seim River, a notable landmark that helps identify the location in the video.
Ukrainian troops targeted bridges over the Seim further to the east, apparently to make the territory under their control easier to defend from Russian ground attacks.