As Russia retakes Kursk, Ukrainians ask, 'Was it worth it?'

Record ID: 1985968

  • Title: As Russia retakes Kursk, Ukrainians ask, 'Was it worth it?'
  • Date: 20th March 2025
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRIEND OF HUMENIUK AND DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, MARIIA PANKOVA, 25, SAYING: "So this was like three, four months... December. Like three or four months ago. And his commander, kept saying like, yeah: 'He's dead.' But, you know, I'm still following all of these (Russian Telegram) groups (showing deceased Ukrainian soldiers) to find at least a picture of
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Donald Trump Kursk oblast MIA Vladimir Putin Volodymyr Zelenskiy casualty missing in action
  • Location: KYIV, UKRAINE / SUDZHA, GUEVO & GIVEN AS POGREBKI, KURSK REGION, RUSSIA
  • City: KYIV, UKRAINE / SUDZHA, GUEVO & GIVEN AS POGREBKI, KURSK REGION, RUSSIA
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA001981318032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: When Mariia Pankova exchanged messages with her friend Pavlo in December she had no idea that he was fighting in Russia's Kursk region.
    She learnt it only several days later when a fellow soldier told Pankova that her friend - Pavlo Humeniuk, 24, a combat engineer in Ukraine's 47th Magura brigade went missing near a village of Novoivanivka in the Kursk region on December 6, 2024.
    Four months passed and Pankova has no information about his fate and keeps searching social media hoping to find out whether he was dead or alive.
    Pankova, 25, also questions if the incursion was worth it. A sentiment shared by others in Ukraine especially after the retreat of Ukrainian troops from most of the Kursk bridgehead, an area in Russia that Kyiv seized last year.
    "I try to believe that it was worth it... but every time I just realize how many our defenders we lost there... It is more complicated to believe that this was worth it. And especially now when we just lost a lot in the last couple of weeks," Pankova told Reuters, holding back tears when talking about her missing friend.
    In comments to a Facebook post in which Humeniuk's relatives plead for information to help find him, six other people said their relatives - Ukrainian servicemen - were missing in the Kursk region.
    There are no official data available on how many soldiers Ukraine lost in the Kursk region as details on war-time losses are classified.
    In December 2024 President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 43,000 soldiers were killed and 370,000 soldiers wounded since Russia's invasion in February 2022.
    As Ukraine launched its incursion into the Kursk region last August, Kyiv's troops seized some 1,376 square kilometers of the Russian territory. But over the first few weeks the area they were able to control became a narrow wedge.
    Ukraine used some of its top brigades but the grouping was never large enough to be able to hold on to a larger area.
    "From the very beginning logistics was seriously complicated because as we entered the Kursk region, we ensured sufficient depth but we did not ensure sufficient width," said Serhiy Rakhmanin, lawmaker and a member of parliament's committee for security and defence.
    Russia always had a manpower advantage along the frontline. But the situation became critical late last year when Russia brought in some of its elite units and top drone forces in reinforcements and aided by the North Korean forces tightened assaults around Ukrainian flanks and advanced to a firing range of a key supply road.
    The retreat also prompted questions and deepened public divide on benefits of the Kursk incursion.
    Soldier Oleksii Deshevyi who lost his hand while fighting in Kursk said he saw no logic in the operation.
    "I think we should not have started this operation at all. But if we already started, we need to keep going and not lose those units that could have fought them (Russians) anywhere else along the front. There’s no sense in just withdrawing from Kursk now or in any of this operation. I don’t get it.”
    President Zelenskiy said the Kursk operation fulfilled its objectives. He explained that a presence inside Russia was aimed at protecting Ukrainian cities like Sumy and Kharkiv and disrupting Russian attempts to create its own buffer zones in Ukraine's northeastern regions.
    Rakhmanin said it also provided a much-needed boost to morale in Ukraine during a difficult 2024 and showcased Ukraine's army ability to conduct successful offensive operations.
    He said it was impossible to hold out in the Kursk region for ever and doubted if the Ukrainian leadership ever had a plan to trade land in Russia for the return of the Ukrainian territories.
    Pankova said she was planning to join the armed forces and was not ready for a peace at any cost.
    "Now, to give up to make some peaceful decision won't be an honour of his memory," she said remembering her friend Pavlo.
    "So every time (when) someone tries to...sell some piece of Ukraine, they just (should) not to forget what we already gave. How many lives our people gave for that."
    (Production: Manuel Ausloos, Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, Sergiy Karazy)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains photographs or artwork. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing this clip.
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