“No Obstacles — Just Drive Forward”

IStories spoke with a former reconnaissance group commander who served in the Russian army for 10 years, participated in the invasion of Ukraine, but refused to continue fighting. On the condition of anonymity, he shared his thoughts on the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) breakthrough in Kursk Oblast.

Warning: there is a lot of profanity in the text.

Parties’ preparation

“Why did all these RVC [Russian Volunteer Corps] and the Legion [Freedom of Russia Legion] conduct their raids? To carry out additional reconnaissance [of the area]. They weren’t just walking around and posting all these videos; [PR] for the media was an afterthought. Initially, any military shit is done for military purposes. We did the same thing back in the day [since 2014]. We went in, observed the reaction — how quickly they respond to your arrival, how many forces are there, where, what, how — and then we left. Then again and again. So, eventually, [the AFU] already had a plan, gradually pulled in troops in small groups so as not to make a large movement noticeable, and then just broke through.

For more than six months, they carried out reconnaissance like this (the first RVC raid into Kursk Oblast took place in March 2024. — Ed.). They kept coming in; there were some small skirmishes, sometimes they got killed, sometimes not. But the main thing is they conducted additional reconnaissance, mapped out the area, tested the forces. And what changed on our side [on the border] in six months? Fucking nothing. And when all these raids on the Kursk direction started, the border guards only had light firearms, no heavy equipment, and the border was practically always open. But nothing changed in six months. Authorities allocated money to strengthen the border: ‘dragon’s teeth,’ trenches were supposedly dug — but mostly, the money, as usual, was fucked up. And what, the Ukrainians [are crazy], or what, not to take advantage of this, once they’ve already learned the area and it still remains weak on defense?

For those on the front line, this breakthrough is not a surprise at all. They’ve long known that something like this would start sooner or later; it was just a matter of time. As usual, all requests up the chain were met with: ‘We have everything under control; intelligence reports that nothing has been noticed.’ And this was all standard practice — before the attack, the shelling intensified. For example, a classic American tactic: they mop out as much as possible with aviation, then the troops go in. In this case, they didn’t use aviation, but intensified the shelling with drones. Here, intelligence, the Ministry of Defense, and the ‘TikTok troops’ at the border (referring to the Chechen ‘Akhmat’ battalion, which was sent to defend the border. After the AFU invasion of Kursk Oblast, its fighters forced a Russian conscript to apologize on video for saying that the Chechens were hiding behind conscripts. — Ed.) seriously fucked up.

Parties’ tactics

The AFU planned everything smartly, like straight out of a textbook: conduct additional reconnaissance, chart the route, and most importantly, do it quickly. They arrived in groups and just started pushing forward without securing positions. Just further and further — one swift push. Because if they were to secure positions, it would give us more time and opportunities to bring in troops to stop them. So they just push forward as fast as possible, while ours are talking shit, arguing, showing up, and filming reports. As they say in the army: ‘If you want to defeat Russia, declare war, and it will fuck itself up with inspections.’ And that’s what happened here. While they were gathering to show up, the AFU had already broken through deep inside, so it’s impossible to stop them locally. For instance, they’ve penetrated, let’s say, 15 km — meanwhile, the sabotage and reconnaissance groups (SRGs) go even further — and start digging in. And when the Russian troops finally show up, the SRG start attacking them.

In this situation, our forces didn’t just respond late — they didn’t respond [properly] at all. Especially with this favorite line that ‘everything is under control, we control everything.’ But then prisoners were captured, and they straight up say that there are only conscripts and border guards here, and they have nothing. That’s why they surrender in whole packs, because, firstly, the conscripts don’t know how to fight, and secondly, they don’t have the weapons to repel such attacks. Fine, if they [AFU soldiers] were coming without equipment or with just two tanks, you might still try to fight back. But when there are dozens of pieces of equipment, there’s nothing they can do. What are you going to do with a machine gun against a tank? So they let them all through because they simply had no way to stop them. Plus, the defensive positions weren’t prepared because the allocated money was clearly stolen. There were no obstacles — just drive forward.

And when the Russian army finally began pulling in reserves — the fucking media were filming everything. They sent a convoy, and in [pro-war] media it was immediately: ‘Here comes the convoy, now we’ll get their asses kicked!’ And of course, the whole thing was completely obliterated by HIMARS (on the night of August 9, the AFU destroyed a convoy of the newly created 44th Corps of the Leningrad Military District near Rylsk with a HIMARS strike. Videos from the scene show dozens of corpses: experts believe that an entire battalion could have been killed in the strike. — Ed.).

And the very fact that they drove in a convoy! At least on the front line, after some time and massive losses, they figured out that driving in a convoy is suicide. But those sitting here still drive in convoys and think they’re going to a parade. The AFU has drones, has rockets — what kind of fucking idiot would lead a convoy in this case, and one that’s even being filmed for the news. That’s why the guys died, without even getting there.

What’s next

Maybe this offensive is being carried out to draw troops away from Donbas, where we’ve recently ramped up the pace. Or maybe they want to capture the Kursk nuclear power plant and later trade it for Zaporizhzhia one. But in any case, the danger for the AFU is that if they push the front too far forward from the border, they could simply get encircled. So, it’s not advantageous for them to go too far — the breakthrough line is small. As soon as our forces start doing something right and pull in reserves, they can block the [AFU] approaches from Ukraine. The Russian army will encircle them, stop the flow of resources, then just tighten the ring and destroy them all.

Since this is Russia, we won’t give a fuck about the civilians left there. It’s already clear that the locals have been abandoned to fend for themselves — people there are on their own. They’ll level everything with artillery and aviation: after all, what is Kursk Oblast compared to Russia?”

Our source's thoughts align with comments from pro-Russian bloggers, who, after the AFU breakthrough in Kursk Oblast, resumed active criticism of the army command. For example, VChK-OGPU and Rybar Telegram channels reported that the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces was informed about the upcoming AFU operation: in response, Valery Gerasimov accused the intelligence of panic-mongering and demanded they “not fall for enemy disinformation.” Bloggers Dva Mayora (“Two Majors”) and Zhivov Z criticized journalists who broadcasted the troop transfers almost live. “I don’t know, maybe it’s really time to issue an order from the Supreme Commander to ban the movement of convoys in the combat zone,” lamented the author of the pro-war Telegram channel Starshe Eddy and suggested beating the convoy commander brutally.

The Aida group from the Akhmat special forces noted the AFU’s tactics: “After probing the weak part of the opponent's position, a lightning-fast breakthrough occurs in a narrow area, where equipment, manpower, and artillery cover are delivered in the shortest possible time.” And the Telegram channel Na PeredoVoy (“In the Frontline”) described the active work of the Ukrainian SRG behind enemy lines: “The enemy disperses into the occupied points and forests.”