Ukrainian soldiers have shared details of their difficult retreat from the Kursk region inside Russia. Putin’s army has succeeded in driving back Ukrainian soldiers from much of the territory they seized last August.

In a bitter blow for Kyiv, Russia‘s army also retook the town of Sudzha, which had served as a command centre for Ukraine‘s army in Kursk. Ukrainian soldiers have revealed how they came under intense drone strikes as they tried to evacuate along the R200 road, a key transport route. In social media posts on 11-12 March, a Ukrainian soldier told the BBC that the retreat from the front was like “a scene from a horror movie”.

“The roads are littered with hundreds of destroyed cars, armoured vehicles and ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles). There are a lot of wounded and dead.”

He added that multiple drones often hunted vehicles and that many soldiers were forced to retreat on foot with “guys walking 15km to 20km”.

The soldier said the situation had turned from “difficult and critical to catastrophic”.

Putin has amassed an army of around 70,000 troops in Kursk – including some 12,000 North Koreans.

For months, they had struggled to push back Ukraine‘s army, suffering massive casualties in the process.

However, Russia made a significant breakthrough in early March when its troops were able to get behind Ukraine‘s lines and launch a surprise attack after walking through a disused gas pipeline.

The breakthrough also coincided with Donald Trump‘s decision to suspend military intelligence sharing with Ukraine following his White House spat with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The lack of intelligence made it difficult for Ukraine to provide artillery cover for their retreating troops.

One soldier told the Telegraph his unit was unable to fire US-supplied Himars rockets to keep the Russians at bay.

“We could not allow expensive missiles to be fired at the wrong target,” he explained.

Other Ukrainian soldiers denied the retreat was chaotic and disorderly or that their units were cut off.

Kriegsforscher, a drone operator who fought in Kursk, said: “The retreat was generally organised but occasionally chaotic. There is no threat of encirclement, and no evidence suggests otherwise.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian commanders insist that the fight goes on and that they still have a foothold in Kursk.

“We continue to hold positions on the Kursk front,” an assault platoon commander told the New York Times. “The only difference is that our positions have shifted significantly closer to the border.”