Vladimir Putin’s military is ‘only second best, even in Russia’, a top Ukrainian commander boasted yesterday – as Kyiv continued to make major advances into enemy territory.
Lieutenant Colonel Vano Nadiradze, of the Ukrainian Special Forces, said more than 2,000 prisoners of war have been taken since the daring incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last week.
Yesterday, a £30million Russian Sukhoi Su-34 bomber jet was shot down and air fields were left ‘devastated’ by Ukraine’s biggest series of drone attacks since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Col Nadiradze told the Daily Mail how sophisticated radar-jamming systems helped ‘dupe and nullify’ poorly-organised Russain forces in Kursk, allowing Ukraine to seize swathes of land.
‘We’ve got more than 2,000 Russian prisoners so far and they aren’t just conscripts, these are competent fighters, including FSB forces,’ he said last night.
‘This operation was two months in the making, with extensive planning and reconnaissance work to make the initial push as successful as possible. Everything was planned meticulously, to the last detail – and remained completely classified.
‘Our anti-radar systems worked wonders. The Akhmat [a special forces unit under the command of Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov] was tasked with overseeing these territories, but we completely duped and nullified them.’
He added Ukrainian forces have fortified their positions, up to 30 miles behind enemy lines, with deep trenches.
And in the few clashes they’ve had with Russian resistance, casualties are running at 10-1 in Ukraine’s favour, he claimed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky last night said Ukraine’s troops had ‘advanced well’ and were ‘achieving our strategic goal’.
Troops are now within striking distance of several Russian ballistic missile bases, and hundreds more Ukrainain fighters continue to pour into Kursk and the neighbouring Belgorod region.
Col Nadiradze said: ‘You can see the extent of our success in Russia already – the hysteria among the Russian military experts and bloggers, the fear on Putin’s face on Russian TV.’
He said the incursion has had several ‘massive benefits’.
It has relieved the pressure on Sumy and Kharkiv in northern Ukraine, as Russia had used Kirsk as a launchpad for artillery bombardments on those regions.
It has alleviated the pressure on Donetsk in southern Ukraine, which Col Nadiradze said was ‘becoming critical’, because Russia has been forced to withdraw five convoys from there to defend its own border.
He added: ‘The Russians made a big mistake, because none of those convoys reached Kursk intact. Along the way, our drones and rockets did an absolute number on them.’ It has also given Ukraine a huge bargaining chip in any future peace negotiations.
Col Nadiradze, a Georgian conscript who has been awarded Ukraine’s highest honour, the Hero of Ukraine medal, said: ‘We have shown our friends in the West just how vulnerable Russia is, and how it will back down when you stand up to it.
‘We have shown the world that the Russian army, once thought to be the second best in the world, is in fact only second best even in Russia.’ Yesterday, satellite images confirmed that trenches have been constructed in Kursk with heavy machinery.
President Zelensky has said Ukraine now controls 74 settlements and 400 square miles of land in Kursk.
Last night, he hailed Ukraine’s ‘good advance’ and renewed his appeal to Western allies for powerful long-range weapons.
He said: ‘The more the Russian military presence in the border area is destroyed, the closer peace and real security will be for our country.’
Russia has struggled to contain the incursion since Kyiv’s forces burst through the border last Tuesday. Kremlin politician Maria Butina last night accused the West of ‘poking the bear’ by aiding Ukraine.