Ukraine Captures 102 Russians Weds, Including Guards Rifle Regt, Chechens

The mass surrender is significant because it implies serious morale problems for the Russians on the Kursk front. A regiment with the "Guards" designation in Russia indicates that the unit is considered elite. The Chechen Akhmat units are notorious for their barbarity (and their love of self promotional social media)  but have been used by the Kremlin as Stalin-style blocking units to assure that frontline Russians dont retreat. 

That such units surrendered en masse suggests the Russians have yet to mount serious opposition to advancing Ukrainian forces in Kursk. JL

David Stern reports in the Washington Post:

Ukraine announced Thursday the capture of another 102 Russian soldiers during its incursion into the Kursk region, describing it as the “largest mass capture” of enemy soldiers at one time. Special forces “captured and cleared a sprawling … and well-fortified stronghold of a company,” taking prisoner 102 Russian servicemen. The captured soldiers were from Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment and the Chechen Akhmat unit.

Ukraine’s intelligence service announced Thursday the capture of another 100 Russian soldiers during its 10-day-old incursion into the Kursk region, describing it as the “largest mass capture” of enemy soldiers at one time, amid talk they will be exchanged for Ukrainian captives.

A Ukrainian official said Russia has been in contact about a prisoner swap — something it had promised to discontinue after the incursion into the southern Kursk region took place.

“There was an initiative from the Russian counterpart regarding this issue. I really hope that, despite the public statements by Russian media that allegedly the Russians have decided to halt exchanges, we are still exchanging information at this time,” Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, told local media late Wednesday.

 

Ukraine’s stunning move into Russia — the first such attack on the nation since World War II — appears to mark a major improvement in Kyiv’s position after a summer of steady losses.

Speaking about the operation, which took place the previous day, a Ukrainian intelligence officer said that special forces from Ukraine’s state security service, or SBU, “captured and cleared a sprawling … and well-fortified stronghold of a company,” taking prisoner 102 Russian servicemen.

The captured soldiers were from Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment and the Akhmat unit, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

A video provided by the official showed dozens of soldiers lying in a line, face down in an open field. Their faces and battle insignia were not visible. The Washington Post could not independently verify it.

 

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the country’s military commander, Oleksandr Syrsky, that Russian servicemen who had been taken prisoner would be added to an “exchange fund” to be traded for Ukrainian prisoners of war. In a video address Tuesday evening, Zelensky said “hundreds of Russian soldiers have already surrendered.”

Ukrainian officials have said that a main reason for the surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was to halt cross-border missile attacks and shelling into Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region.

Ukraine was creating a “security zone” in Kursk, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Telegram post Wednesday.

“There are Russian civilians within the specified zone,” Vereshchuk wrote. “They are under the protection of international humanitarian law, which Ukraine fully complies with.”

 

Ukraine would open humanitarian corridors for refugees, “both toward Russia and toward Ukraine,” and would allow humanitarian organizations into the security zone to monitor the situation, she said.

“Due to the possible deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the adjacent territories of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, Ukraine must be ready to receive Russian refugees,” Vereshchuk added.