For two weeks, shocking images of dozens of Russian servicemen captured in their own country by the Ukrainian army have been circulating on Telegram channels, Russia’s favorite social network. About a hundred servicemen have been detained in Ukraine since August 6, according to a statement from the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Syrsky. Other videos show servicemen of Chechen origin, supposed to protect Russian rear bases, fleeing and holding up a phone store.
These are the only images filtering out of the Kursk region of Russia, where chaos appears to have reigned since the Ukrainian army carried out its surprise incursion. Ukrainian forces control 1,250 square kilometers in the Kursk region, according to the Ukrainian president’s clarifications on Monday, August 19, while the army has established a military command in the city of Sudja, taken as early as August 8. Ukraine has also seized part of a key railway line for Russian logistics and a major gas transit point.
“Anti-terrorist operation”
Faced with the first territorial invasion that Russia has experienced since World War II, Vladimir Putin is trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation. The Russian president did not postpone his state visit to Azerbaijan, and met with President Ilham Aliyev as if nothing had happened. He also did not declare martial law in the Kursk region and the border regions of Ukraine, announcing only an “anti-terrorist operation”. The aim: to hide from the public the reality of the crisis in the southwest of the country – dozens of civilians have been killed or injured, 120,000 local residents have had to be evacuated in panic.
As a sign of this denial of reality – or lack of courage – no member of the government, nor even local representatives, has dared to go near the sensitive areas. And this, while the interim head of the administration of the Kursk region, Alexander Shmatkov, has resigned August 13th.
In the media silence, battalions of military personnel are being hastily sent across Russia to Kursk to strengthen the defenses in the region and stop the Ukrainian advances, despite the lack of available personnel. A temporary motorized rifle regiment of the Aerospace Forces even had to be mobilized, reports Russian investigative media Important Stories. And conscripted soldiers – poorly prepared young men – are being sent to the front lines, sparking outrage not only among families but also across society as a whole.
Do not comment on military setbacks
The Russian power structure is careful not to comment on these military setbacks. According to the Russian opposition newspaper Vyorstkathe Kremlin’s presidential administration recommended Russian deputies and senators not to comment on the events in the Kursk region “until further notice” or to discuss them as briefly as possible, referring only to official statements. The top brass of the Defense Ministry, including Minister Andrei Belousov, also kept silent during the first days of fighting in the region, preferring to deliver triumphant reports on the situation afterwards. On Sunday, August 18, for example, the ministry underlines that since the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, the Ukrainian side has lost nearly 3,500 soldiers and 50 tanks.
“Russian authorities have often resorted to the usual tactic of sweeping the problem under the carpet, waiting for it to disappear, and then forgetting about it. This tactic worked successfully during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny. [NDLR : l’ancien patron du groupe de mercenaires Wagner] last year and this year’s terrorist attacks in Dagestan,” writes Andrei Pertsev, a Russian journalist and analyst, for the independent media Riddle RussiaIt remains to be seen whether it will work this time in the face of Ukraine’s direct attacks on the Russian population.
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