Ukrainian troops desperately cling on to final sliver of Kursk territory as they flee down ‘street of demise’ and gleeful Russians showcase captured US armoured autos forward of Trump peace talks with Putin

Russia‘s soldiers have seized abandoned Western tanks and armoured vehicles in the Kursk region as trophies after Ukrainian troops were forced to retreat under heavy fire from drones and artillery. 

A slew of videos shared on the Telegram messaging app by war blogging channels showed Russian forces parading a pair of what looked to be US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) on the back of haulage lorries.

Elsewhere, war bloggers and reporters from Russia’s RIA news service accompanied a unit of troops who were tasked with evacuating what appeared to be a Stryker Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) from the scene of a recent battle in Kursk.

It comes as horrific images emerged showing roads and fields littered with the bodies of Ukrainian troops who were massacred as they attempted to flee the Russian onslaught.

The R200 highway – the main route out of the key town of Sudzha toward the Ukrainian border – has been under near-constant bombardment for almost two weeks and is now being described as the ‘road of death’ due to Ukrainian losses there.  

Ukraine’s armed forces in August 2024 launched a dramatic incursion across the border into Russia’s Kursk region and managed to hold a considerable amount of territory until earlier this year.

It was seen as a key bargaining chip ahead of ceasefire negotiations, but in recent weeks Russia’s forces surrounded and overwhelmed Ukrainian positions, triggering a drastic retreat.

Now, Ukraine’s military has been all but expelled from the embattled region, losing a key point of leverage just as Donald Trump prepares to share a phone call with his opposite number in Moscow this afternoon.

The Kremlin said the call between the US President and Vladimir Putin will take place ‘from 4:00pm to 6:00pm Moscow time’ (1300 to 1500 GMT), as spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leaders will discuss Ukraine and the ‘normalisation’ of US-Russia ties.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Putin does not want peace and is trying to achieve a better position militarily ahead of any halt in fighting.

Ukrainian soldiers who survived the retreat from Kursk gave harrowing accounts of Russia’s hellish assault and described their withdrawal from Sudzha as a ‘collapse’. 

‘(Troops) are trying to leave – columns of troops and equipment. Some of them are burned by Russian drones on the road. It is impossible to leave during the day,’ one soldier told the BBC. 

Another explained that Russian forces had managed to cut supply lines, leaving Ukrainian troops isolated with no military or logistical support.

‘Logistics no longer work – organised deliveries of weapons, ammunition, food and water are no longer possible,’ a man whose name was given as Anton said.

‘We almost died several times. Drones are in the sky all the time.’

Other combatants likened the retreat to ‘a horror movie’ with vehicles exploding all around them and comrades being killed mid-evacuation.

‘The roads are littered with hundreds of destroyed cars, armoured vehicles and ATVs. There are a lot of wounded and dead,’ one statement read.

Their accounts of the battlefield were supported by extensive footage and images shared by Russian army units and war bloggers via the Telegram messaging app, who documented the aftermath of the fighting as they advanced. 

Fleeing Ukrainian troops were seen being targeted by Russian first person view (FPV) drones, their bodies ripped apart by the explosions and left to rot in the mud. 

Other images showed corpses dressed in Ukrainian army fatigues lying beside the wrecked hulls of armoured vehicles. 

Now, as Russian troops continue to force their foes out of Kursk, Putin is preparing to speak with his US counterpart. 

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One yesterday, Trump said he would discuss issues of ‘land’ and ‘power plants’ with Putin – a likely reference to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest that fell to Russia in the first days of its invasion.

He said both sides had already discussed ‘a lot’ ahead of the call and that he would speak with Putin about ‘dividing up certain assets’. 

‘We’re going to have a very important call,’ Trump declared. ‘We’re getting down to a very critical stage.’ 

The Trump administration has made clear that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory as part of any lasting peace deal, with European countries worried Trump will force Kyiv into an unfavourable agreement. 

But Zelensky said over the weekend that any discussions over the division of territory should take place at the negotiating table only after a ceasefire is implemented. 

Last week, Ukraine accepted a 30-day ceasefire proposal set forth by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following discussions with Kyiv’s diplomats in Saudi Arabia.

Kyiv urged Russia this morning to accept to the ceasefire to show it is serious about bringing an end to the conflict before entering negotiations. 

‘It is time for Russia to show whether it really wants peace,’ Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said. 

‘We expect the Russian side to unconditionally agree to this proposal.’

But Russia has continually bombarded Ukraine with missile and drone strikes in recent days.

Putin said last week he agreed with the idea of a ceasefire in principle, but warned he had ‘serious questions’ about how it would be implemented.

He declared that any ceasefire supported by Russia must lead to ‘long-term peace and addresses the root causes of the crisis’.

Among Putin’s demands are that Ukraine never join the NATO military alliance, that European peacekeepers not be deployed on Ukrainian territory, and that Moscow be allowed to keep all the Ukrainian land it currently occupies.

Russian forces are in control of roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s total landmass.