By Manueling Outlooos and Olena Harmash
KYIV (Reuters) – When Maria Bangkova exchanged the last messages with her close boyfriend in December, she had no idea that he was among the Ukrainian forces fighting in the Russian Korsk region.
When a soldier told her several days later, she discovered that her friend, Pavlu Hymanok, 24, a combat engineer in the Majura 47 in Ukraine, was lost near the village of Novivinvka in Kursk on December 6.
Pancova told Reuters, citing her conversations with his relatives, that there was no other information about the fate of Pavlu, citing her conversations with his relatives. It continues to search in Telegram and Facebook in the hope of knowing whether he has died or alive.
Pancova, 25, believes that the cost of risky Ukraine penetration in Russia may be very high. Many feelings are shared by many others in Ukraine, especially after the forces retreated from most of your corses this month after weeks of heavy fighting.
She said, “I am not sure that it is worth it,” she is destroying her face when she talked about her missing boyfriend, who was associated with their common love for long distances in the mountains of Ukraine.
“We are not invaders. We only need the return of our lands, and we do not need Russian.”
In response to questions for this story, the General Staff of the Armed Forces in Ukraine said that the attack was aimed at pressure on Moscow, to transform Russian forces from other fronts and prevent Russian attacks across the border on the neighboring parts of Ukraine.
The general staff said that the operation “achieved most of its goals.”
Kyiv’s assault on Kursk in August, Russia and the world, took a surprise. It was the largest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.
When the Ukrainian soldiers in the Corsak region, without largely opposition, quickly seized about 376 square kilometers (531 square miles) of Russian territory.
But less than the forces, within weeks, the Ukraine -controlled area has shrunk into a narrow wedge.
KYIV has used some of the best maritime attacks and air, but the assembly was not large enough to be able to stick to a larger area.
“From the beginning, the logistical services were very complicated because with the entry of the Kursk region, we had enough depth, but we did not guarantee enough offer,” said Sirhi Rakhmanin, a Ukrainian legislator for the Security and Defense Committee.
From the start, Russia had a workforce feature along the Kursk confrontation line.
But the situation became critical late last year. Russia brought elite units and drones higher as reinforcements, with the help of North Korea forces. They stressed the attacks on the Ukrainian wings and led to the shooting of the main show, according to reports of Ukrainian military bloggers near the armed forces.
“They did not increase the number of their group that opposes our army, but they also improved its quality,” Rakhmanin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has never recognized the role of North Koreans in the battlefield.
“No logic”
The restoration of Russia to the Cursk region removes a potential bargaining chip of Ukraine, just as US President Donald Trump pledges talks to end the war with Russia, which maintains about five Ukraine’s national territory.
Ukraine’s retreat from the city of Corsak in Soda, which Kiev confirmed on March 16, has deepened the general gap in Ukraine to the benefits of incursion.
The 32 -year -old soldier, Okexy Desevi, a former security goalkeeper at a supermarket while he was fighting in Corsak in September, said he had not seen a logic in the operation.
“We shouldn’t start this process at all,” Kiev told Reuters at Reuters at Kiev.
Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski admitted his army that he was in a difficult situation in Corsak and that he expected continuous attacks from Russia because he is trying to push the remaining Ukrainian forces out of the region.
However, Putin and Trump’s demands denied that his forces were surrounded. The American intelligence assessments mentioned Kyiv’s forces is not surrounded.
Ukrainian military analysts said that Russian forces are now sending small offensive groups to try to penetrate the Ukrainian border in the Sumi region, and may also be preparing for a larger attack there.
In the general comments that made Putin, Valerie Girassemov, chief of Russian General Staff, confirmed last week the incursions of his recent forces in Sumi. He detailed what he said was heavy Ukrainian losses in Kursk.
The Ukrainian General Staff said that even with Ukraine turning into a defensive process, its goals included “controlling the lands of the Russian Federation, exhausting the enemy, destroying its employees and withdrawing its reserves.”
He added that nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers were captured, some of them were replaced by Ukrainian prisoners.
The general corners said that due to the operation, Moscow had to establish three new groups, totaling about 90,000 soldiers, in addition to 12,000 North Korea soldiers.
Reuters could not independently verify these allegations.
Risk
Even in the beginning, some criticized it as a risky gambling.
Viktor Muzhenko, former head of general employees in Ukraine, wrote in August 2024 that Ukraine should “focus on defending its main lands, avoiding unpredictable risk -fraught operations that can turn attention from major threats, and choose shapes and methods to use forces that suit their capabilities.”
However, some in Ukraine praised the process as a black eye for Russia.
Speaking on March 12, Olegander Serski, the Supreme Commander of Ukraine, said that the operation had transferred and killed some of the best Russian forces.
The legislator, Rakhmanin, said that he also provided a batch that affects the need in the morale in Ukraine after Russia has made regional progress there in 2024 and offered Ukraine’s ability to perform successful offensive operations.
While Trump is negotiating with Putin to end the war, Bancova remembered her friend Pavlu and doubted the possibility of a peace agreement that prevented Russia from taking more Ukrainian lands at a later time.
She was considering joining the armed forces.
“Every time someone tries to say, selling a piece of Ukraine, they shouldn’t just forget what we have already presented. How many lives our people have given to that.
(Participated in the reports of Manuel Oslos and Olina Harfash in Kiev; additional reports by Ivan Lebesh Kerdi; edited by Frank Jacques Daniel)
