Ukrainian Special Operations Forces operators pose with a captured Russian MT-12 anti-tank howitzer in the Kursk region (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
One of the first Ukrainian soldiers on Russian soil in the Kursk offensive has spoken of the moment his team opened fire on a truckload of enemy troops they caught by surprise.
The Special Operations Forces (SOF) operator said he sensed fear as the elite units went about striking Vladimir Putin’s war machine on its own ground to make way for the incursion.
The offensive is the first time foreign troops have captured ground within Russia’s legal borders since World War Two.
Another parallel with the earlier conflict can be drawn between the small group warfare tactics used by Ukraine’s special forces and the havoc wreaked by Britain’s SAS behind German lines.
Aided by the advance party, Kyiv’s main battlegroup made a rapid advance and now controls hundreds of square kilometres of ground across the border from the Sumy region.
Speaking under the pseudonym ‘Bravo’, the soldier told Metro.co.uk how members of the SOF 8th Regiment carried out the carefully planned ambush which is said to have killed dozens of Russian soldiers.
Special forces operators spring an ambush from a forest in the opening phases of the Kursk incursion (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
Springing the attack from a forest, the team wearing head-to-toe camouflage used assault rifles fitted with suppressors, grenades and a shoulder-launched rocket to obliterate the Russian military vehicle.
‘In such operations, the distance to the enemy is always short,’ Bravo said.
‘But during the ambush, we could feel that the enemy was afraid of us and knew they couldn’t overcome us or escape.
‘That’s exactly what they tried to do but failed.
‘Some enemies tried to escape into the woods, but SOF team members eliminated them, while others covered the pursuit.
‘We saw that the Russians were afraid of us and understood that we could be in any forest and attack them from any direction.
‘This gave us motivation and strength.’
The Ukrainian troops utilise the techniques of cover and fire as they close in on the Russian soldiers (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
The military vehicle erupts in flames after the ambush sprung by a small group of elite Ukrainian troops (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
The military transportation vehicle was left a charred wreck in the aftermath of the attack (Picture: Special Operations Forces of Ukraine)
Reconnaissance carried out by Bravo’s team had given them the route of the enemy truck, which was packed with troops and travelling in broad daylight on a highway through a wooded area.
They had a few minutes to use the element of surprise, opening fire on the enemy personnel before checking the area and the dead Russians and pursuing those who tried to escape.
In bodycam footage the transporter is shown well ablaze before the Ukrainian team calmly moves in to find the corpses of Putin’s soldiers.
A member of the ambush team pulls a Russian patch from …read more
Source:: Metro
