How Ukraine pulled off its biggest gamble: invading Russia

As Volodymyr ready to enter Russian territory, adrenaline ran by means of his veins. It was not misplaced on him that 81 years in the past, one other battle in Russia’s Kursk area marked a turning level for Europe.

He and the opposite troopers of the 82nd air assault brigade listened to their commander’s directions: eyes open, transfer swiftly and hold your nation in your ideas. Then, after a brief prayer and a battle cry of “Glory to Ukraine!” they got down to invade Russia — the primary international military to take action because the second world warfare.

“We entered Russian territory for the primary time at 1pm on Tuesday [August 6],” Volodymyr mentioned. “We had been among the many first to enter there.”

To his astonishment, his unit confronted no resistance as their eight-wheeled, 20 tonne US Stryker preventing car stormed throughout the border in broad daylight.

They quickly encountered a Russian unit “sitting within the forest, consuming espresso at a desk”, Volodymyr recalled. “Then our Stryker drives proper into their desk.

“We killed lots of them on the primary day,” he mentioned. “As a result of they had been unarmed and didn’t count on us.”

Not wanting to finish up like their comrades, he added, “dozens” of surprised Russian troopers merely laid down their weapons and surrendered.

Over the following six days, the worry felt by lots of the 1000’s of Ukrainian troops participating on this audacious operation yielded to exhilaration. They superior shortly — by 5km-10km a day — seizing a number of villages, a part of a railway line and a key fuel transit level. They started unexpectedly digging positions and making ready for Russian reinforcements to reach.

However to their shock, Russian troops didn’t seem, at the least not within the method that they anticipated. Highly effective glide bombs had been launched from Russian jets, which worn out some Ukrainian troops and helpful western-provided tools. Lancet X-winged suicide drones got here barrelling in direction of them. However the Ukrainians pressed on.

“It was a bit tough at first however then it obtained simpler,” mentioned Roman, one other soldier in Volodymyr’s unit.

On Friday, nevertheless, their Stryker was hit by a Russian rocket-propelled grenade. The driving force suffered a concussion however everybody survived, because of the car’s thick layer of armour. Unable to drive it additional, they towed it again throughout the border.

When the Monetary Occasions met the crew on Sunday, simply 5km inside Ukraine, Volodymyr, Roman and two different troopers had been taking the broken car aside to see what might be used as spare elements for different Strykers earlier than sending it to a US base in Germany for repairs.

As with the Russians, the US and German governments — two of Ukraine’s largest army and monetary supporters — mentioned they’d not been knowledgeable upfront in regards to the Ukrainian incursion.

Wolfgang Büchner, a German authorities spokesperson, on Monday mentioned the operation had been “ready with nice secrecy and with out session” from Berlin. “Every little thing factors to a spatially restricted deployment,” he added.

The FT spoke to greater than a dozen troopers given that their surnames not be printed for safety causes.

“Our temper is sweet. Morale is excessive,” mentioned Serhiy, a paratrooper from the eightieth air assault brigade, sipping an vitality drink on a highway resulting in Kursk.

As he spoke, explosions reverberated from the entrance line and a Ukrainian fighter jet flew at low altitude on its manner again from an assault on Russian positions.

The Ukrainian troops mentioned their operation was progressing as they’d hoped. In lower than every week, they’d entered greater than 30km inside Russia and claimed to have seized about 1,000 sq km of territory. Volodymyr mentioned they had been nonetheless shifting in direction of the regional capital, Kursk.

Russia has did not halt their advance, the troopers mentioned. A lot of its reinforcements have been captured or killed. One Russian convoy went up in flames after being struck with a US-made Himars missile, based on Ukrainian drone footage reviewed by the FT.

President Vladimir Putin has referred to as the operation a large-scale “provocation” and Moscow has evacuated greater than 130,000 residents from the Kursk and Belgorod areas bordering Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned on the weekend that Kyiv needed to “push the warfare on to the aggressor’s territory” and put “stress” on Russia to “restore justice”.

Few particulars are identified about how the operation got here collectively, and troopers had been cautious to not reveal delicate data. Most of the troops didn’t even know what the mission was till a number of days upfront.

Parts of at the least six Ukrainian brigades are concerned, based on the troopers and the FT’s overview of fight footage printed by the Ukrainian brigades on social media.

Volodymyr and the paratroopers of the 82nd brigade had been dropped at Ukraine’s northern Sumy area days earlier than the operation started.

Different troopers mentioned — and their social media movies confirmed — that they’d beforehand fought in flashpoints within the japanese Kharkiv area, the place they had been holding again Russian forces that had launched their very own cross-border incursion there in Might.

They’d additionally been in Donetsk area, the place the strategic cities of Chasiv Yar, Niu-York and Toretsk have been beneath relentless Russian assault for months.

Denys, a soldier driving a US-provided Humvee painted in desert camouflage, mentioned the Kursk battle — in the identical location as a significant 1943 battle between German and Soviet forces — felt “completely completely different” from that within the Donetsk area.

“Combating from defensive positions is way more durable,” he mentioned. “The enemy is aware of every little thing about us there. It is aware of the place we’re. Its drones can see our each transfer.

“Right here we had the factor of shock,” he added. “However we had been additionally shocked that [they were] so shocked with [our attack].”

Denys mentioned the primary purpose of the operation was to seize Russian land. “We are able to battle right here and take their territory. After which negotiations can begin, and we could have some land of theirs to commerce for our land,” he mentioned.

Different troopers mentioned the aims additionally included forcing Russia to divert assets from the Ukrainian entrance line. It’s too early to inform whether or not they have been profitable, with stories indicating solely small numbers of troops have been pulled away from the Kharkiv and Donetsk fronts.

Putin on Monday claimed Russia’s forces continued to advance alongside the entrance line and mentioned their “tempo of assault” had elevated 50 per cent because the begin of the Ukrainian incursion.

Some troopers admitted to initially questioning the operation. A couple of mentioned they had been frightened about leaving positions in Donetsk when the Russians had been nonetheless making each day advances and threatening Kyiv’s maintain on its final remaining cities there.

Denys frightened the operation may come at the price of cities within the Donetsk area. “Niu-York will probably be captured, 100 per cent,” he mentioned. “It may even occur tomorrow.”

Russian forces had been additionally prone to take Chasiv Yar and Toretsk, he predicted.

Earlier than the Kursk operation, a senior Ukrainian official warned that “cracks” had been forming within the defensive strains within the east.

Deep State, a Ukrainian analytical group with ties to the defence ministry that tracks and maps the entrance line, confirmed Russian forces making additional positive factors round these japanese Ukrainian strongholds.

“These cities are already misplaced. They’re solely ours on the map. The Russians have wiped them out,” Denys mentioned.

Even so, Ukrainian officers and army analysts fear their seize may hinder their army logistics and result in Russia threatening remaining strongholds within the Donetsk area.

As in any daring army operation, the Ukrainians have taken casualties. Russia’s defence ministry claims to have killed greater than 1,610 Ukrainian troops, numbers which are unimaginable to confirm and which troopers on the bottom say are exaggerated. However many ambulances and armoured medical evacuation automobiles rushed to and from the entrance line whereas the FT was there.

Zoriana Stelmakh informed the FT that her brother, Denys Boyarchuk, a senior Ukrainian soldier within the eightieth airborne assault brigade, had been killed within the operation’s early days. In a publish on Instagram that featured movies and pictures of Boyarchuk in uniform, Stelmakh mentioned he “died fulfilling his oath to serve the Ukrainian folks to the very finish”.

Boyarchuk, who was identified by his army name signal “Barista” as a result of he had beforehand labored in a espresso store, first joined the army in 2014, after the Kremlin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and covertly invaded the japanese Donbas area with the help of native separatist proxies.

Boyarchuk was preventing with the eightieth brigade in Donetsk area when he was redeployed to Sumy area to participate within the incursion.

On Sunday, Boyarchuk was buried in a cemetery in western Ukraine.

The final time Stelmakh spoke along with her brother was on August 4, two days earlier than Ukrainian troops entered Kursk. They argued “a bit” like siblings typically do, she mentioned.

Her final phrases to Boyarchuk had been “I like you and hug you”.

Extra reporting by Max Seddon in Riga and Man Chazan in Berlin