- Matt Davis Reads the Newspaper So That You Don't Have To
- Posts
- Russia Forces Ukraine Out of Kursk Territory Once Seen as Leverage
Russia Forces Ukraine Out of Kursk Territory Once Seen as Leverage
Kyiv's Vast Gains Are Reduced to a Sliver
Matt Davis
March 17, 2025
For those of you who are new here, I read the top story in the New York Times every morning so that you don’t have to. If you were forwarded this, you can subscribe here. I’m also doing a five-minute video version of this, each morning at around 9 a.m. (depending on how long it takes me to read the newspaper). If you’d like to follow me on LinkedIn (you can always watch the recording later). If you subscribe to my Youtube channel it’ll also send you a notification when I’m “going live.”
Now, let’s do this;
Apologies for the creases. There was a light drizzle falling this morning and I may have dropped the paper on the floor at the subway station as I was carrying the kid’s stroller up the stairs. Most importantly, I went back and got it for you!
Those of us keen-eyed non-readers of the newspaper will know: It’s only been two days since Kursk was above the fold at the New York Times, with Vladimir V. Putin of Russia insisting Ukraine forfeit the area as part of the peace process, and Ukraine accusing him of stringing out the peace process with a series of unreasonable demands. In case you’d like to refresh your memory I’m happy to have read the newspaper then, too, so that you didn’t have to:
Two days is a long time in politics and it’s even longer in Kursk. This morning’s front page story by Marc Santora quotes a Ukrainian platoon commander saying that Russian forces have been storming through their lines and forcing them back to a sliver of land along the border.
“By the time one Ukrainian assault platoon retreated from its position less than a week ago, all their vehicles had been destroyed, drones hunted them night and day and they were almost out of ammunition.
Russian forces were closing in from all directions, said the platoon’s commander, ‘prompting our retreat.’”
That does not sound good. The platoon commander asked to be identified by his call sign, “Boroda”, which Wikipedia tells me is slavic for “beard” or “chin,” and is a pretty cool call sign, if you think about it, evoking the great beards of history, and also, relatedly, Betty White’s relationship with Liberace. Sadly that’s definitely the last joke you’re going to read in today’s newsletter because unfortunately this whole ongoing war in Ukraine is riddled with horrors and atrocities, and I’m going to have to steel myself a bit to tell you what’s going on.
Ready?
(Rolls up sleeves).
Ukrainian forces now hold 30 square miles of Kursk, compared to the 500 square miles they held at the height of the offensive. Now they’re trying to prevent Russian forces from pouring into the Sumy region of Ukraine and opening a new front in the war. Here’s one way they’re trying to do that, by putting razor wire along the border:
Razor wire defenses in the forest in the Sumy region of Ukraine, along the border with Russia, earlier this year. Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times
Sadly I don’t think the Russian army respects razor wire. Or much else, based on what you’re about to read.
The Kursk operation was seen by some analysts as an unnecessary gamble in the war, Santora reports.
“But it provided a much-needed morale boost to Ukraine, which had sought to show it could bring the war home to Russia and had hoped the territory it occupied there would serve as leverage in any cease-fire negotiations.”
Russian troops have been aided in the region by thousands of North Korean troops, who withdrew from the battlefield in January but returned in February with much improved combat skills, according to the Ukrainian troops on the ground. The implication there is that Russia has trained North Korean troops to be better fighters. Think about that.
Russia has also used military drones to spot targets, and used them alongside warplanes to destroy bridges to make it harder for Ukrainian forces to retreat, the Ukrainian troops told the Times. But a key breakthrough for Russia came on March 3 when the U.S. suspended intelligence aid, the story says. It meant the Ukrainian fighters couldn’t target Russian soldiers with any accuracy and they stopped firing missiles at them. Think about that.
Then on March 8, 800 Russian fighters walked about 10 miles through a disused gas pipeline measuring 4.5 feet wide to emerge inside Ukrainian-held territory and engage the enemy:
“Russian propagandists and officials described the operation as a heroic feat, while Ukrainian sources called it a death sentence, with some Russian attackers allegedly suffocating from residual methane in the pipeline. That claim could not be independently verified.”
Whether or not you think it was a good idea, sending 800 men 10 miles through a 4.5-foot gas pipeline — which may have killed several of them — demonstrates the levels of aggression Russia is prepared to go to in this war. If we were describing a British and American move against the Nazis during World War II, this is the sort of thing that might have made a good movie.
The attack caused “havoc and confusion” behind Ukrainian lines and triggered them to start withdrawing.
Kyiv had hoped to use its control over Kursk as leverage in negotiations to end the war but now, Mr. Putin is using the Ukrainian retreat to try and “strengthen his hand in talks with the Trump administration about pausing the hostilities.”
Trump told reporters on his plane this weekend that he will talk with Putin on Tuesday, saying there is a “good chance” that an end will come in the war. They finally arranged that phone call, it seems! (Presumably both men have very busy schedules what with golf, war profiteering and decimating the Department of Education taking up so much time).
In a separate story this morning the New York Times documents claims by Ukrainian women that they have been raped during the war.
“Relatively few women in Ukraine have come forward to report cases of rape during the conflict because of the stigma attached to sexual assault in Ukrainian society, which is deeply religious and conservative, especially in rural areas. Prosecutors have registered more than 344 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, 220 of them women, including 16 underage women.
But women’s groups estimate the real number runs into the thousands, with at least one case in almost every village that has been occupied by Russian troops. United Nations human rights reports have documented dozens of crimes of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers but have not detailed evidence of any abuses by Ukrainian soldiers. A recent report noted only ‘two cases of human rights violations against alleged collaborators committed by the Ukrainian authorities.’”
Donald Trump knows nothing about rape, as we all know. Separately, however, Mr. Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming Jean Carroll in the changing rooms at Bergdorf Goodman.
There is pressure on the UN to name Russia as a party responsible for sexual crimes committed in Ukraine. The accounts in the story are harrowing and not necessarily something you will want to read. Suffice to say it appears that sexual violence against Ukrainian women is at least an unofficially sanctioned and possibly even encouraged tactic by Russian soldiers in the war. It’s appalling.
The sooner this war is concluded, the better. I’m not proud to see the U.S. aiding the Russian troops by withholding intelligence and I don’t love to see Trump talking about carving up Ukraine aboard his airplane. I’ve hated to see Trump pushing Russian disinformation about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky being a “dictator” who “started the war.” And I want it to stop. I suspect that it will stop fairly soon, and more than a million people will have died because Putin decided to invade a neighboring country to prop up his corrupt regime and distract from domestic resistance. Can you imagine Donald Trump suggesting he would invade a neighboring country for similar reasons? 🤦🏻♂️
I guess the bigger question for me is, whose side is America on, right now? In World War II, Steve McQueen fought with the British against the Nazis. In a movie glorifying war, I’ll admit that. But right now, it appears we’re intent on propping up a corrupt dictator whose troops have systematically raped Ukrainian women as a way of, potentially, enriching ourselves with mineral rights in their country. It’s disgusting and I’m ashamed of it. Aren’t you? Oh. You’re not?
“Three months into his second term, President Trump hit the highest approval rating he’s ever had as commander-in-chief — while more Americans say the country is on the right track than at any point since 2004, a new poll found.”
Once again:
🤦🏻♂️
Thanks for reading the newspaper with me so that you don’t have to read the newspaper. I really wish that reading the newspaper was a little more pleasant but that’s what we’re here for. To go through the horrors until they stop. At least, I think that’s what we’re here for. Right?
Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.