Ukrainians Cheer Push into Russia but Fear It Comes at the Cost of the East

The Washington Post

16:27 JST, August 23, 2024

KYIV – As Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia stretches into its third week and increasingly looks like a prolonged operation, ordinary Ukrainians are becoming conflicted over the possible cost of the cross-border offensive.

On the one hand, the assault has brought the war to Russian territory, turning the tables more than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine – displacing millions, destroying towns and forcing many people to live under an oppressive occupation. But as Moscow’s forces continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region around the strategic town of Pokrovsk, some are questioning why Kyiv is devoting so many resources to taking Russian land rather than defending its own.

It’s a dilemma President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing as he and his military command have committed precious personnel and weaponry, including some of Ukraine’s crack assault brigades and Western-supplied fighting vehicles, to the Kursk operation.

Moscow has so far resisted diverting its troops from its main thrust in eastern Ukraine near Pokrovsk, forcing a delicate choice on Zelensky: stick to the plan to take Russian land that could be a powerful bargaining chip for future peace talks or pull back to reinforce a key city inside Ukraine.

“I believe that we are not being protected,” said 77-year-old Raisa Makarova, a retired police officer living in Pokrovsk. Ukrainian forces “are going somewhere else,” she said. “It’s very hurtful. We thought that such a thing wouldn’t reach Pokrovsk, that they would defend Pokrovsk. Well, I guess we’ll have to die here.”

Ukrainians’ reaction to the attack across the border into the Kursk region was gleeful at first. As Ukrainian troops advanced quickly, capturing hundreds of Russian prisoners of war, the offensive was a morale boost in the country after a dearth of good news from the front line over the past year. Kyiv’s highly touted counteroffensive last summer largely failed, and Moscow had regained the initiative since then, especially in the Donetsk region.

A recent mobilization campaign to conscript tens of thousands of Ukrainian men a month for the military’s depleted ranks has created tension in society, with many anxious about fighting. Two years of rolling blackouts caused by Russia’s missile and drone strikes on the power grid have also taken their toll on the economy and disrupted everyday life even for those far from the battlefield.

“There was a certain fatigue with regard to news from the front,” said Sevgil Musaieva, the chief editor of Ukrainska Pravda, one of the country’s largest independent news outlets.

“People see a certain hope in these actions, that this might be a turning point,” she added. “It’s important for a nation that’s fighting a full-scale war for three years already. It influences morale a lot.”

Some considered it fitting that after Ukrainian civilians across the country often sheltered in basements from bombardments, regular Russians were now also feeling the consequences of a war their government started.

“Let them experience what it’s like and understand what it means to live under occupation,” said 66-year-old Lyubov Yemets. “I think that [the Russians] will start to reconsider things a bit. They need to make some decisions, they need to think about something. Maybe the people will rise up?”

The Ukrainians that Washington Post journalists interviewed differentiated between their military’s grab of Russian territory in Kursk with Moscow’s occupation of Ukrainian land. Unlike Russia, Ukrainian officials haven’t signaled any desire to annex the territory or establish an occupation government. Reporting in Ukrainian-controlled Russian territory has been limited and typically with Ukrainian soldiers present, but there has so far not been any evidence of Kyiv’s forces mistreating Russian civilians.

“There are occupations that are done by the aggressor country, that impede on someone else’s territory, and there are occupations like the one we are doing now, which take place in order to defend and to get our territory back,” said Mykola Khanatov, mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Popasna.

“I support it completely,” he added. “We understand that civilians are suffering as well. But on the other hand, I do have to say that two-thirds of the air attacks on Ukraine came from the Kursk region, and these people didn’t exclaim any disagreement with the Russian authorities. They didn’t come out in protest.”

Ukrainian officials have said the seized territory could be used as leverage in future negotiations to end the war, but those appear far off after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow wouldn’t consider cease-fire discussions now.

Zelensky has also said that one of the goals of the offensive was to create a buffer zone to protect Ukraine’s Sumy region by pushing Russian forces back from the border, limiting Moscow’s ability to shell the area. Some people living in Sumy region villages close to the border said they indeed feel safer now. Others said they are more nervous that the increased Ukrainian military presence in the area could lead to more missile strikes.

“More soldiers are coming in for coffee and are walking around in the city,” said Oleskandr Miazin, a 19-year-old barista working in a Sumy coffee shop. “It’s a little bit scary because the Russians might make more airstrikes or bomb the city. It could make us more of a target.”

But the murkiness over the Ukrainian leadership’s endgame in Kursk has also added to the unease in society as the Russians continue to bear down on Ukrainian land in the east. Kyiv hasn’t said how long the incursion might last or what Ukraine would want in exchange from the Kremlin to withdraw its forces from Kursk.

People expressed worry for the soldiers still defending the front line in the Donetsk region – now with less ammunition, because much of it has been devoted to the Kursk offensive. If Russia continues to close in on Pokrovsk, some asked, would Ukraine really choose to hold Russian territory over its own?

“I might have an unpopular opinion, but I think that on the one side, sure, it’s cool and good and of course that it kind of revives the spirit of our people,” said Viktoria Kalashnyk, a 34-year-old artist and volunteer living in Kyiv. “But on the other hand, in the Donetsk and Kharkiv areas, there is heavy fighting. And I don’t know, maybe it would be better to send reinforcements there?”