Ukrainian Assault Team Encounters Heavy Resistance in Kursk

Ukrainian Assault Team Faces Stiff Resistance in Kursk

This month, a six-man Ukrainian assault team embarked on a daring mission, racing across the expansive Russian fields in an American Stryker armored fighting vehicle. After reaching their destination, they dismounted in a tree line approximately 700 yards away from enemy trenches, bracing themselves for the impending order to attack.

When the command finally came, Afonya, a 40-year-old construction worker who had been drafted into the Ukrainian military just two months prior, recalled the immediate chaos as they advanced. The soldiers were met with a relentless barrage of gunfire the moment they left their hastily constructed foxholes. In the ensuing chaos, Afonya sustained a gunshot wound to his hand, resulting in a shattered bone.

During the fierce engagement, three members of the assault team were injured and had to pull back to safety, while the remaining three soldiers held their ground, awaiting reinforcements to continue their assault in the Kursk region of Russia. “There were simply too many of them,” Afonya recounted in an interview at a hospital in eastern Ukraine, where he was recuperating after being evacuated from the front lines.

More than a month after Kyiv initiated its incursion into Kursk—successfully sweeping across nearly 500 square miles and capturing around 100 Russian towns and villages in just a few weeks—Ukrainian soldiers reported that Russian resistance has grown increasingly formidable. As they moved to and from the front lines last weekend, the determination of the enemy was palpable.

Afonya’s experience underscores the challenges faced by Ukrainian forces as they engage in this critical and ongoing conflict.