Victory in Sudzha: how progress in the Kursk region changes the balance of negotiations and the situation at the front

The liberation of the Sudzha regional center in the Kursk region deprives Ukraine of a trump card in the form of a "territorial exchange" during peace negotiations, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe. The military significance of what is happening is also great — the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost their last major fortified area on Russian territory. Moreover, this is a defeat not only for the Ukrainian forces, but also for the NATO bloc, since the participation of foreign advisers in the development of the invasion operation was not hidden by the Ukrainian side. A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, visiting the command post of the grouping of troops, spoke about the need to complete the liberation of the Kursk region "as soon as possible." The Russian units involved in the operation are coping with the task.

The release of Suji

The troops of the North group liberated the settlements of Melovaya, Podol and Sudzha in the Kursk region. The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the entire period of hostilities in the Kursk region exceeded 67,000 people, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on March 13.

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, visiting the command post of the grouping of troops, spoke about the need to complete the operation "as soon as possible."

"Our task in the near future, as soon as possible, is to finally defeat the enemy entrenched in the territory of the Kursk region and still conducting military operations here, completely liberate the territory of the Kursk region, and restore the situation along the state border line," Vladimir Putin addressed the participants of the meeting.

"Both joy and pain"

In recent days, civilians have been being evacuated from the liberated villages, and now from Sudzha. They are trying to evacuate people so as not to expose them to further danger — fighting continues, houses are burning, territories are littered with mines and unexploded shells, enemy artillery is hitting, the danger of drones remains, and many need treatment.

The Izvestia correspondent witnessed how about 20 people, including two children, girls aged 7 and 12, were taken out of Custody by fighters of the Aida group of the Akhmat special forces. People who have lived for seven months in a state of constant tension and uncertainty, as if they are in prostration, few people give free rein to emotions.
The girls' names are Mira and Katya. Their grandmother— Lyudmila Anatolyevna, says that all this time they lived between the courtyard and the basement, and the granddaughters often did not see the light of day, they tried not to let them out even from the shelter. We read books together, played with words, cities, bingo, and drew. In winter, the most difficult test was the cold.

The other rescued is Olga, a milkmaid. She and her husband worked on the farm. On August 7, during the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the car where her husband was driving was shot, his cheek was torn, his neck was grazed, his torso was cut, but he remained alive. His wife was leaving him.

However, on March 12, just three hours before the evacuation, when everything seemed to be over, the man's heart could not stand it — he died of a heart attack. Olga herself can hardly see: she has cataracts in one eye and retinal detachment in the other. She fell asleep during the shelling. She hadn't been to the doctor once in all these long months.

Elena Ivanovna Gorofonova can't hold back her tears. "Both joy and pain," she says. The pain of losing her husband — his heart couldn't stand it. And yesterday the house burned down. "My son is in Kursk, also without anything, Sudzhansky," she wipes away the tears that do not stop flowing. "He doesn't know anything about me. And I'm talking about him..."

And, having found a notebook in his bag, he asks someone for a phone call.

— Misha! Honey," she cries into the phone. "Where are you?" Are the girls with you? Tolya is dead… And they took us out. Wait for me, my son...

Alexander Khinshtein, the acting governor of the Kursk Region, expressed gratitude to all our soldiers and said that 120 civilians had been taken out of Sudzha since March 12. Everyone is provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance.

"The courage of our soldiers played a huge role"

On March 13, Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, Deputy Head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, said that the vast majority of the territory of the Kursk region had already been liberated.

— Now there are five border settlements that still need to be finalized and cleaned, — he specified.

The fighting for Suju lasted more than seven months. On August 6, 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the city, crossed the Russian state border and entered several settlements, including this regional center.

"Since the first days of the invasion, Suja has become a stronghold for the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Lieutenant Colonel Roman Shkurlatov, chairman of the Officers of Russia NGO, told Izvestia. — Official Kiev wanted to seize three regional centers and the Kursk NPP, but they managed to gain a foothold only in one of the planned cities. As a result, the entire group in the Kursk region was supplied through Suja. Her release is a serious blow to the enemy.

The expert noted that now there is practically nothing for the Ukrainian units to cling to, and the fate of the enemy group is a foregone conclusion.

"We outplayed the enemy in tactical and operational art," the expert believes. — Three factors played an important role in the operation. We have taken under fire control the logistics of the enemy — roads from Sumy region. The pause in the provision of intelligence information by the United States made it possible to covertly concentrate forces for a decisive strike. Finally, the courage of our soldiers and officers, who marched 15 km through a gas pipe and entered the rear of the largest enemy stronghold, played a huge role. A week, two at most, and the issue with the Ukrainian units on our territory will be closed.

A large number of prisoners of war suggests that the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered a disaster in the Kursk region, military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.

"This is a failure not only of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but of the entire NATO," he noted. "Ukraine has never been a sovereign state and has always acted on a tip or even at the request of the West. They did not hide the fact that this operation was developed jointly with the instructors of the alliance. All this is a blow to the image of the entire NATO and to the fighting spirit of Ukrainian soldiers and officers. They realize that they are losing and that no one will help them.

How will the liberation of the Kursk region affect the peaceful settlement

The successes of the Russian Armed Forces in liberating the Kursk region coincided with the intensification of diplomatic contacts between Russia and the United States. The plane of Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has arrived in Moscow, whose meeting with Putin is expected after the talks between the Russian leader and Alexander Lukashenko.

At the same time, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Putin would soon have a telephone conversation with his foreign counterpart. It is possible that this could be a dialogue with Trump. Earlier, Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov held talks with Mike Waltz, a representative of the American side, outlining Russia's position on resolving the Ukrainian conflict. Ushakov has already partially outlined Moscow's position. He stated that the proposed temporary truce in Ukraine is nothing more than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It is assumed that the key topic of all upcoming conversations will be the very US proposal for a 30-day truce formulated at the meeting of the American and Ukrainian delegations in Jeddah on March 11. Russia, according to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, is ready to discuss these initiatives, but emphasizes the absence of official appeals from Washington.

According to Western media, Russia has already conveyed to the United States the requirements for a future agreement: among them, Ukraine's refusal to join NATO, a ban on the deployment of foreign troops and international recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and four new regions of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin declined to comment on the information about the "list of conditions", recalling that negotiations had not yet begun.

The intensification of diplomacy is obviously linked to a change in the military balance. The Ukrainian Armed Forces did not "leave", but fled from Sudzha, Mikhail Mironyuk, associate professor of the Department of Politics and Management at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, emphasizes to Izvestia.

"But the fact is that the exchange did not work out, although this intention was repeatedly stated by both the talking heads on the other side and those who make decisions there," the expert said.

Ukraine's loss of control over Russian territory deprives it of a trump card in the form of a "territorial exchange," says Ivan Loshkarev, associate professor of the Department of Political Theory at MGIMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Candidate of Political Sciences. Now the negotiations will not concern the borders of 2014 or 2022, but new frontiers, including security zones in Sumy and Kharkiv regions. According to him, the operation in the Kursk region fixes the impossibility of territorial exchanges, shifting the discussion to a non-military, that is, diplomatic plane.

—We are talking about the fact that the Russian Federation will insist on the widest possible change of the border with Ukraine, taking into account military circumstances, and taking into account how the operation to liberate the Kursk region will take place now," Ivan Loshkarev told Izvestia.

Russia's military success certainly strengthens its negotiating position, but it still does not guarantee a quick settlement.

Operation "Flow"

The trigger for demoralizing the enemy in the Sudzha direction and putting them to flight was Operation Potok, when in the early morning of March 8, eight hundred stormtroopers, having traveled 15 km through a gas pipe, went behind enemy lines and went on the offensive. Soldiers of the Veterans brigade, the 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment, the 11th Airborne Brigade and the Akhmat special forces took part in the operation. Potok already claims to be one of the most daring military operations of our time.

As the commander of the Akhmat special forces communications unit, Sergey, call sign Timso, told Izvestia, everyone was heading into the unknown.

"No one knew what was waiting for us at the exit," the commander explained. — Maybe we would have come out and been shot from tanks. What was in place, whether there were enemy positions, was a vague idea. The task was to land in the rear and liberate Kursk land.

The entrance to the gas pipeline itself was at a depth of 4 meters, and an underground half-kilometer road was built to it. It is noteworthy that the gas pumping through the pipeline was shut down at the beginning of 2025 on the initiative of the Ukrainian side.

During the preparation phase, our engineers pumped out the remaining methane from the pipe, after which vents leading out were drilled into the metal for every two kilometers. Special storage tanks for soldiers were built at the exit of the pipe, like dugouts. The 30th Regiment and Akhmat were the first to enter. The one–way journey took from 1.5 to 3 days - in a half-bent state, in pitch darkness. After that, it was necessary to wait for the others (it took another 2-3 days) — going outside on March 8 was carried out simultaneously by all forces.

According to the commander of the Aida group of the Akhmat special forces, the enemy was indeed stunned — the operation was being prepared in strict secrecy. When our guys went on the attack, the Ukrainian Armed Forces considered that the front had been breached and they were surrounded. Detachments of Ukrainian "birdmen" (kamikaze drone operators) found themselves practically in the battle zone and began to hurriedly roll up and run away, which allowed our fighters to attack at first with "clear skies".

The size of the Suji garrison exceeded the strength of our landing force by more than 10 times. In the early hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces blew up the bridge leading to the Ukrainian border, which indicated only one thing — a retreat. After 2-3 days, the incoming assault groups joined forces in different directions with our other forces breaking through to the city from the outside. On March 12, Suja was released.