Title: Kursk Retreat: Abandoning Russian Island, Soldiers Dispute Signal From Moscow
Author: Andrew E. Kramer, based on un-bylined work by Ivan Nechepurenko and peter Pomerantsev
Published Date: 16 March 2025
Genre: News
Tag Format: ww/news/europe/crimea/russia/army/ukraine/cursk-retreat- Soldiers Dispute Signal From Moscow, Andrew E. Kramer, Ivan Nechepurenko, Peter Pomerantsev.
After a brief stint on the Crimean peninsula, the surrounded Russian military convoy, “known as the Kursk Regiment”, has begun to move back across the Sivash Strait into Russia, voluntarily abandoning their position. However, according to some Russian military men, the retreat was a misunderstanding that resulted from a misinterpretation of orders emanating from President Putin himself. The New York Times reports that enough communication equipment had been seized or destroyed by the Ukranian military, and the remaining link was silenced during a skirmish last week.
The soldiers and civilians stranded on the island believe that they were informed that they would be kept provided for, whatever happens, but “some, like Sgt, Ivan Vasilievich Kiyanov, pointedly said that he had not been told that a withdrawal was being ordered.” In the same vein, an unmoving convoy of trucks was spotted waiting on the bridge to the Russian mainland, leading a number of military figures to question the Moscow’s next move.
The forced retreat of the Kursk Regiment can be seen as a critical moment for the war in east Ukraine. During the non-confrontational phase of the conflict, the military enjoyed a strong influence over the Kremlin. The miscommunication at Kursk forces Moscow to question their current deputy head of the general staff, and pushes the volunteer forces and Cossack leaders, who have played a pivotal role in the conflict until this point, to no longer count on Russia’s official army for aid, re-supply, or logistics.
Many in this volunteer force believe that the “Russian armed forces…will do everything possible in order not to provide all-round support for the new centers of pro-Russian resistance.” There are also those, like a radical Cossack leader by the name of Mikhail Galchenko, who demand “a blitzkrieg that would strike at the darkest heart of the Great Satan itself, hopefully knocking sense and political legitimacy into the Western bourgeoisie.” Instead of depending on their usual method, armed with Molotov cocktails, the stronger volunteers push for a Russian-style incursion. Still, the moderate leaders among the volunteers reject command by the Russian armed forces for a more limited mission that will allow them “to strike at Ukrainian troop concentrations near Donetsk,” focusing on the separatist forces.
Largely due to the Kursk issue, the Ukrainian military now heavy-heartedly accepts involvement in a mini-war that intentionally spares life, but triumphs however possible. While the separatists in the east have captured a larger portion of the war they are fighting than they had in last month’s debate, they remain unable to obtain military materiel or modern weaponry on demand, unlike the Cossack forces and regular Russian army. The Ukrainian forces remain grimly-optimistic however, aided by a depletion of separatist weapons. A Novgorod-based Wagner Group, who has gained notoriety as a provider of private military contractors, has been offered by the Russian government to work in Ukraine, but the offer was denied by the group.
Parsansho, Dolmatov, and Kramer describe the “new phase of the war involving mostly limited exchanges of fire…as a time to strategize, to think about future battles, and to prepare for a clash that could ultimately prove decisive.” Whether it be a conflict of determination, arms, or resources, it seems that the separatists are in a far more complicated position than when this conflict began.
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