
New details have emerged about the fighting in Belgorod, described by wounded servicemen there who were evacuated across the border to Ukraine’s Sumy region. kyiv has appointed a military commander to lead the captured areas.
Ukraine’s offensive into Russia has spread to the Belgorod region, where heavy fighting is underway as Kiev forces in the neighbouring Kursk region showed signs of consolidating control on Thursday. New details about the fighting in Belgorod, described by wounded Ukrainian soldiers there and evacuated across the border into Ukraine’s Sumy region, emerged after Ukraine on Thursday appointed a military commander to take charge of the parts of Kursk it has seized.
Ukraine’s intelligence service also announced the detention of more than 100 Russian soldiers on Thursday, in what it said amounted to the “largest mass capture” of enemy soldiers at one time. The festive mood over the surprise advance into Russian territory persisted among many troops returning from Kursk to Sumy on Thursday to refuel their armored vehicles and buy espresso and hot dogs in Ukraine before returning to their posts across the border in Russia.
In a town near the border crossing overrun by Ukrainian forces last week, the director of Ukraine’s national war museum beamed Thursday night as he sorted through artifacts collected by Ukrainian soldiers in Russia. He piled Russian movie posters, military uniforms and even a communist flag into the back of his silver pickup truck, saying he plans to display them in Kiev. But in contrast to the jubilation of some who fought at Kursk, the fighting in Belgorod has been fierce.

A Russian serviceman fires a Russian Giatsint-S self-propelled gun towards Ukrainian positions. The acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexey Smirnov, has said that the situation in the region remains complicated (EFE/EPA/RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE)
Three wounded Ukrainian soldiers, including a commander, described how after months of being deployed along the border, they were sent to Russia four days ago. They crossed in a fleet of armoured vehicles in broad daylight, said Hacker, 24, speaking on condition that he be identified only by his call sign, in accordance with Ukrainian military rules.
As they prepared to cross the border at Kolotilovka, the same place where prisoners of war have been exchanged before, Hacker recalled thinking to himself that this was a “crazy” action. Russian troops in Belgorod appeared prepared for their arrival, the soldiers said, in contrast to the rapid advances of Ukrainian units through Kursk. Although some had retreated, the area was fortified with dragon’s-tooth antitank obstacles and heavily mined. The Ukrainians came under heavy fire with artillery, drones and aerial bombs almost immediately.

Military vehicles drive on a road near a sign indicating the approach of the Russian border north of Sumy, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)
The Ukrainians advanced about six miles, soldiers said, and took over abandoned positions of Russian troops. But fighting remained intense. “Our entire group was wounded the day we arrived,” Hacker said. Many Ukrainian soldiers suffered concussions or were seriously wounded, while others were killed and had to stay behind, he said. The shelling was so intense that survivors had to take shelter in Russian trenches for days, until an armored vehicle arrived to evacuate them for medical treatment Thursday morning. Some were wounded more than once as they waited for help.
Hacker said he feared he would be killed in Russia “because we didn’t know their territory.”“We were working blind,” he added.
Russia has not acknowledged the ground fighting in Belgorod, but the governor there declared a state of emergency earlier this week.
Among the six who were evacuated was Hacker’s commander, Serhii, 48, whose right leg was badly injured in a drone strike a day earlier. On Thursday, after arriving in Ukraine, he underwent immediate surgery. “They bombarded us with everything,” he said. A nurse came to adjust his bloodied leg as other wounded soldiers recovered around him. One of them had a bloodied and swollen face. Two others had wounds on their arms.
Russian forces in Belgorod may have been put on high alert after the operation in neighboring Kursk, and that could have contributed to the stiffer resistance, said Brady Africk, an open source analyst and senior media fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
That posture was likely reinforced by the construction of a defensive line since last summer, Africk said, a buildup after cross-border raids led by Russian militias aligned with kyiv.
“There is a pattern of attacking Russia in a way they didn’t expect, losing territory temporarily or permanently, and responding by dramatically increasing the construction of defenses,” Africk said.
Africk said it’s unclear whether Ukrainian forces fighting in Belgorod received the same level of planning and support that helped their counterparts in Kursk.
Despite some losses, Ukrainian officials have seized on the momentum in Kursk, with military chief Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky announcing Thursday the appointment of a military commander for the region “to maintain law and order and ensure the basic needs of the population.” The announcement echoes Russia’s own moves to administer the parts of Ukraine it occupies. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to push toward the eastern city of Pokrovsk, with regional authorities announcing Thursday the mandatory evacuation of civilians from the key rail hub.
Ukrainian soldier Kniaz, 32, who stopped in Sumy to refuel his vehicle Thursday, said he had interacted with older Russian civilians across the border, including some who spoke Ukrainian and thanked the troops for their mission. “They want peace and quiet,” he said. Asked whether he thought Ukraine would try to hold on to the territory indefinitely, Kniaz, whose call sign is an ancient Slavic royal title, replied: “I don’t know… I just have to do my job.”
The detention of more than 100 Russian soldiers marked the “largest mass capture” of enemy soldiers at one time, Ukraine’s intelligence service said, amid talk that they will be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners.
Speaking about the operation, which took place the day before, a Ukrainian intelligence official said special forces from Ukraine’s state security service, or SBU, “captured and cleared an extensive … and well-fortified stronghold of a company,” taking 102 Russian service members prisoner.
The captured soldiers belonged to Russia’s 488th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and the Akhmat unit, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
A video provided by the official showed dozens of soldiers lying in a row, face down in an open field. Their faces and battle insignia were not visible. The Washington Post could not independently verify the footage.
A Ukrainian official said Russia has been in contact with them about a prisoner exchange, something it had promised to suspend after the incursion in the southern Kursk region began.
“There was an initiative from the Russian counterpart regarding this issue. I really hope that despite public statements by Russian media that the Russians have supposedly decided to stop the exchanges, we are still exchanging information at the moment,” Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, told local media on Wednesday evening.
In a video address on Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “hundreds of Russian soldiers have already surrendered.”
Ukrainian authorities have said one of the main reasons for the surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was to stop cross-border missile attacks and shelling in the neighboring Sumy region of Ukraine.
Ukraine was creating a “security zone” in Kursk, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Telegram post on Wednesday.
“There are Russian civilians within the specified zone,” Vereshchuk wrote. “They are under the protection of international humanitarian law, with which Ukraine fully complies.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s efforts to regain ground in Kursk have been hampered by infighting between different military and security units, according to nationalist military bloggers who blame several military commanders and call for their dismissal.
After the initial rapid advance, Ukraine’s progress in the Kursk region has slowed as it faces stiffer resistance. Satellite images from Maxar show Russian forces digging trenches in an effort to stop any possible advance towards Lgov, west of the city of Kursk.
On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, a civilian economist appointed in May for his ability to increase military production and improve efficiency, announced plans at a meeting of regional governors to increase supplies of military equipment and personnel to the Kursk region.
The meeting appeared to be a tacit admission of a lack of military personnel and equipment and poor coordination in the 10 days since the attack began. Belousov said the military had prepared a plan “to improve the efficiency of troop control in coordination with other security agencies” in the region.
On Thursday, an additional district in the Kursk region, Glushkovo, with a population of 18,000, was evacuated, bringing the total number of people ordered to evacuate to about 180,000.