Videos that appear to show Russian forces surrendering to Ukrainian troops on Russian soil suggest those soldiers are desperate and inexperienced, war experts said.
The Washington Post reviewed more than 130 photos and videos taken since the start of Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region on August 6.
Russia was slow to react to the invasion of Ukraine, allowing several days to pass before diverting enough troops to slow the incursion. Its leaders were said to have ignore intelligence of a Ukrainian military buildup on the border.
Dara Massicot, a Russian military expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the publication: “My instinct when I saw those videos was that those soldiers were not combat-experienced troops who have fought inside Ukraine.”
Most of the videos seen by the Post appear to have been filmed by Ukrainian soldiers and then shared on social media, the outlet said. Business Insider could not independently verify the footage.
Massicot told the Post, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a video of Russian soldiers surrendering en masse like that.”
A destroyed Russian tank on the side of a road near Sudzha, Kursk region, Russia, on August 16, 2024. AP photo
The Post said verified visuals showed Ukraine had captured at least 247 Russian soldiers in the region. By comparison, before the invasion of Kursk, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine hosted 1,348 Russian soldiers.
Mathieu Boulègue, another Russian military expert, told the Post that the apparent number of Russian troops surrendered was surprisingly high: “I didn’t expect so many easy surrenders.”
“But it also shows how fragile the Russian war narrative is, and it also shows how desperate these soldiers are who would rather be with Ukraine in Ukrainian prisons or cells than fighting for Russia,” Boulègue, a member senior non-resident at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said.
Ukraine said it captured 102 soldiers in one day, in what would be the largest single group it has captured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Officials also said Financial Times that the total number of captured Russian soldiers was in the “hundreds”.
A Ukrainian deputy commander who was previously involved in the incursion told the BBC that soldiers guarding Russia’s borders “They were mostly children doing their compulsory service.”
A border crossing point with Russia in Ukraine. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Western intelligence, defense analysts, Ukrainian soldiers and captured Russian troops have also indicated that Russian soldiers are not well trained.
Rainer Saks, an Estonian security expert, said ERR that the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk had been successful “mainly due to the fact that the Russian military command and political leadership were completely unprepared for this type of event”.
Some of the bodies in the videos reviewed by The Post said they were recruits. Putin had promised that these soldiers would not be involved in the fighting.
Ukraine says it has taken more than 483 square miles of Russian territory – which is more than the amount of territory Russia has captured in Ukraine since the beginning of the year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s goal with the incursion is to create a “buffer zone” that could minimize Russia’s ability to attack Ukraine.
Even war analysts BI said that Ukraine would likely also want to expand Russian forces and give new motivation to its troops and allies.