Dozens Of NATO Officers Among Encircled Kiev Troops in Kursk Pocket writes Paul Serran
After eight months of resisting inside Russian territory, the Ukrainian pocket in the Kursk region is almost completely overrun, and what was once a great pride to Kiev is now described as its ‘most costly mistake.’
Ukrainian has lost over 69,000 troops during the Kursk incursion, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, leading to US President Donald J. Trump intervening for the lives and dignity of the thousands of encircled Ukrainian troops – and President Vladimir Putin has agreed to it.
But now, it arises an even more dangerous situation, in which we learn of Russian media claims that there are dozens of NATO officers among those surrounded.
RIA Novosti reported:
“About 30 officers from NATO countries were surrounded in the Kursk region, Sergei Lebedev, coordinator of the pro-Russian Nikolaev resistance, told RIA Novosti, citing colleagues.
‘According to the underground, surrounded in of the Kursk region there are about 30 career NATO officers who were engaged in commanding troops on the ground, as well as incoming reconnaissance data from NATO satellites and adjusting strikes deep into Russian territory’, the agency’s interlocutor said.”
In the last few days, the Russians army launched a massive offensive in the Kursk region, liberating 31 settlements, while the Ukraine military lost more than two thousand soldiers in a week.
General Valery Gerasimov reported to Putin that the Ukrainian detachment is now isolated, and it is being ‘systematically destroyed’.
There is also evidence that, in some directions, Russian forces have crossed the border with Ukraine and are conquering territory in the Sumy region.
“The head of state [Putin] noted that if some time ago the Armed Forces of Ukraine left the Kursk region in large groups, now this is no longer possible. He also proposed to think about creating a security zone along the state border.”
After Trump asked Putin to spare the lives of surrounded Ukrainian troops, the Russian leader responded that the leadership of Ukraine would have to order its military ‘to lay down their arms and surrender.’
Putin urges Kiev to order troops in Kursk Region to surrender
The Russian president has said he was “sympathetic” to Donald Trump’s call on Moscow to spare the Ukrainian soldiers’ lives
Moscow is “sympathetic” to US President Donald Trump’s request that the lives of the Ukrainian troops encircled in Russia’s Kursk Region be spared, President Vladimir Putin said during a National Security Council meeting on Friday. Russia will guarantee their lives if they lay down their arms, he added.
Earlier in the day, Trump urged Putin to preserve the lives of the “thousands of Ukrainian troops” who are “completely surrounded by the Russian military.”
“This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Putin responded that he was aware of Trump’s request, adding that Russia was willing to consider it. “If they lay down their arms and surrender, [we] will guarantee them their lives and dignified treatment in accordance with international law and Russian legal norms,” the president said.
The Russian leader pointed out that Kiev’s forces had committed “numerous crimes against civilians” during their incursion into Kursk Region and that the Russian law enforcement authorities were treating their actions as “terrorism.”
For the US president’s call to be “effectively heeded,” Kiev must order its troops to lay down their arms, Putin stated.
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NATO infantry operations veteran Major (retd) Mark Takacs (lead image) has published an animated map analysis of the battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces around Sudzha, in the Kursk region, between March 5 and 14. Nothing comparable has been reported by the Russian military bloggers; their US copyists; or the Ukrainian and British propaganda agencies.
Without the intention on Takacs’ part, his military analysis reveals the reason for the announcement of the “immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire” on March 11 in Jeddah by the US and Ukrainian delegations, after the plan had been composed by UK and US officials in Kiev over the previous weekend. This is to restore command and control communications with the Ukrainian units still occupying about 20% of the Kursk territory they had taken last August; restore and refill the primary NO7 highway and secondary routes into the Kursk salient for supplies of fresh arms, ammunition and troops; and construct new defence lines and fortifications which had either failed or been missing during the Russian offensive movements of the previous week.
A parallel plan for the salients southward down the line of contact is likely, although Takacs has yet to analyse them. In short, the ceasefire has been proposed to continue the war, not to end it.
“The control of Ukrainian troops inside this incursion zone [Kursk] has been lost,” President Vladimir Putin said on March 13. “At the initial stages, just a week or two ago, Ukrainian servicemen tried to get out of there in small groups. Now it is impossible. They are trying to get out in very small groups of two or three men because everything is under our complete fire control…If this area is physically blocked in the next few days, then no one will be able to leave. There will only be two options: surrender or die. I think in these conditions it would be good for the Ukrainian side to achieve a ceasefire for at least 30 days. We are also in favour of it, but there are nuances. What are they?”
“First, what will we do about the incursion section in the Kursk Region? What would that mean if we cease fire for 30 days? Does this mean that everyone who is in there will just walk out without a fight? Do we have to let them go after they committed numerous heinous crimes against civilians? Or will the Ukrainian leadership issue a command for them to lay down their arms and just surrender? How will this happen? It is not clear.”
In his week-long record of the Kursk battlefield, Takacs corroborates Putin’s description that the Ukrainian forces have been cut off by successful Russian military operations. But Takacs indicates that despite the disruption of their communications and their supply routes, they have been able to hold on to their positions despite Russian air superiority, drone and artillery fire control, and a five to one numerical superiority of infantrymen.
Takacs also reveals he has found no evidence that the Ukrainian operations were adversely affected by the Washington press release announcing the “pause” in US intelligence sharing with the Ukrainian forces starting on March 5, and ending with the press release of resumption on March 11.
Earlier, on March 4, Takacs reported he was taking the pause seriously: “Much of the minute-accurate tactical intelligence data (0-20/30 km deep behind the enemy’s perimeter) comes from US technical intelligence sources. Of course, the Ukrainians also operate tactical reconnaissance systems, but mainly they cannot see into the areas behind the Russian brigades and beyond to the depth of the division without the Americans. This is a problem because Russian operations can be predicted by 12-36 hours (so even the often mentioned shift-of-gravity attack method can be avoided) if there is accurate information about these terrain sections. If this is not the case, then the Ukrainian defence will be at a significant disadvantage.”
His subsequent assessment records no US pause, no Ukrainian disadvantage.
Another NATO campaign veteran comments on Takacs’s report: “There’s no mention of the supposed American support cut-off as a contributory factor in the Ukrainian defeat. Instead, we can see that on the Russian side, superior electronic warfare, persistent and patient preparation over several months, tactical surprise, and bravery (the Pipe Operation), and Ukrainian negligence are given credit for the Russian victory.”
The Takacs report also raises a question which Russian analysts and their American copyists have been reluctant to ask: why, with overwhelming air, ground and firepower superiority against the Ukrainians, and the months-long preparation of the operational plans, has the Russian offensive been so slow?
Watch the 20-minute Takacs video by clicking here.
Takacs explains he has served as an officer in the Hungarian Army up to the rank of major when he resigned in April 2024. His experience included five years of mechanized infantry field operations and five years as a military academy trainer of officers at the battalion and brigade levels. For rank and field experience compared to US military bloggers on the Ukraine war, Takacs is the equal of Major Scott Ritter; he is junior to Colonel Douglas Macgregor; he outranks Andrei Martyanov and the pseudonymous army NCO Simplicius.