DW correspondent Nick Connolly has been embedded with Ukrainian troops during their operations in the Kursk region.
He accompanied them as they headed for the town of Sudzha, just beyond the border with Russia, where Ukraine is setting up a military command office.
He accompanied them as they headed for the town of Sudzha, just beyond the border with Russia, where Ukraine is setting up a military command office.
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00:00The windows of a Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier grant only a limited view, empty streets
00:06and the occasional sound of shelling in the distance.
00:09You could be somewhere along the front lines in Ukraine, but this is Russia, under Ukrainian
00:13control.
00:14We're on an embedded trip, which means that we will have Ukrainian army personnel with
00:19us throughout.
00:20We're not able to go in with our own vehicle and move freely, but for now that is pretty
00:24much the only way to get in and to get some idea of what's going on there, even if we
00:28only see part of the story.
00:31No one knows how many Russian civilians were left behind when Ukrainian forces crossed
00:35the border.
00:36Locals told us the town's Russian authorities simply got in their cars and fled.
00:41Those remaining have had no running water, no power and, crucially, no phone signal for
00:46two weeks now, cut off from news and their families in the rest of Russia.
00:52Compared to many places in eastern Ukraine, it seems comparatively quiet, but the Ukrainian
00:56soldiers accompanying us are on edge.
00:59We were just trying to talk to some locals here in Sudzha and there was a big shout
01:08from all the Ukrainian troops with us.
01:09They have seen a Russian Zala drone up in the sky above, which would normally get coordinates
01:14for artillery or other strikes that could potentially be coming this way.
01:18Oleksii Dmitryshkivsky is the spokesperson for the newly created Ukrainian military command
01:23in Kursk region.
01:24He says he never expected to be here.
01:27Unlike Russia, he says, Ukraine has no plans to annex territory.
01:30We don't want to keep this land.
01:35We don't need it.
01:37We've had to do this to show our enemy that they're vulnerable as well, that they're not
01:42all-powerful.
01:43Ukraine's leaders want the world and ordinary Russians to see images like this.
01:52They want ordinary Russians to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to move troops away from
01:55the front lines in the east of Ukraine to defend Russian soil here in Kursk.
02:00For now, it seems that they're not doing that.
02:02They're not moving large numbers of troops away from Donbass.
02:05But the hope among the Ukrainian troops here is the longer this goes on and the more Russian
02:08territory they take, that eventually Russia will be forced to draw down its troops in
02:12Ukraine.
02:13We're going to see some of the locals who are hiding in a cellar nearby.
02:19The streets are empty.
02:20Basically, all you can hear are generators in the distance.
02:23There's still no power here and very occasionally some Ukrainian military transport.
02:29It's mainly the elderly and those looking after sick friends and relatives who stayed
02:32behind.
02:33The people we meet stay close to the basement where they sleep for safety.
02:39No one offered me a chance to evacuate.
02:43People got out on their own, in their cars.
02:46I live alone.
02:48My daughter lives far away.
02:49I had no way of getting out.
02:57I was looking after an elderly friend.
02:59She was sick before.
03:00I couldn't just leave her.
03:04She died yesterday and we buried her today.
03:12Many have been left homeless by the continuing artillery fire between Ukrainian forces here
03:16in Suja and Russian forces nearby.
03:21My house was bombed.
03:23There's only a crater left.
03:25I was here when it happened yesterday.
03:29The house is destroyed.
03:33There's talk of setting up humanitarian corridors to allow these people to reach areas under
03:37Russian government control.
03:38But so far, it's no more than talk.
03:43I came to work in Suja that day.
03:45We didn't understand what was happening.
03:47I've been here ever since.
03:48My parents are back in the village.
03:50They're 84 and 83 years old.
03:52I don't know what's happened to them and they don't know what's happened to me.
03:57Then something we weren't expecting to see.
03:59The Ukrainian army spokesperson gets out his laptop to show these Russian civilians video
04:04from Bucha, the town near Kiev, where Russian troops were accused of carrying out war crimes
04:09when they controlled the area.
04:10The locals seem exhausted, barely able to take anything in.
04:14It's a moment that reveals more about how Ukrainian soldiers on Russian soil are feeling
04:18than it does about Russians' views on the war.
04:21Some Ukrainian soldiers seem to think that if they can show ordinary Russians what was
04:25done in their name in Ukraine, then perhaps those Russians will question Vladimir Putin's
04:29story of what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine.
04:34We don't have time to say any more.
04:35We're told it's time to leave.