00:00The windows of a Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier grant only a limited view, empty streets
00:06and the occasional sound of shelling in the distance.
00:09You could be somewhere along the front lines in Ukraine, but this is Russia, under Ukrainian
00:13control.
00:14We're on an embedded trip, which means that we will have Ukrainian army personnel with
00:19us throughout.
00:20We're not able to go in with our own vehicle and move freely, but for now that is pretty
00:24much the only way to get in and to get some idea of what's going on there, even if we
00:28only see part of the story.
00:31No one knows how many Russian civilians were left behind when Ukrainian forces crossed
00:35the border.
00:36Locals told us the town's Russian authorities simply got in their cars and fled.
00:41Those remaining have had no running water, no power and, crucially, no phone signal for
00:46two weeks now, cut off from news and their families in the rest of Russia.
00:52Compared to many places in eastern Ukraine, it seems comparatively quiet, but the Ukrainian
00:56soldiers accompanying us are on edge.
00:59We were just trying to talk to some locals here in Sudzha and there was a big shout
01:08from all the Ukrainian troops with us.
01:09They have seen a Russian Zala drone up in the sky above, which would normally get coordinates
01:14for artillery or other strikes that could potentially be coming this way.
01:18Oleksii Dmitryshkivsky is the spokesperson for the newly created Ukrainian military command
01:23in Kursk region.
01:24He says he never expected to be here.
01:27Unlike Russia, he says, Ukraine has no plans to annex territory.
01:30We don't want to keep this land.
01:35We don't need it.
01:37We've had to do this to show our enemy that they're vulnerable as well, that they're not
01:42all-powerful.
01:43Ukraine's leaders want the world and ordinary Russians to see images like this.
01:52They want ordinary Russians to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to move troops away from
01:55the front lines in the east of Ukraine to defend Russian soil here in Kursk.
02:00For now, it seems that they're not doing that.
02:02They're not moving large numbers of troops away from Donbass.
02:05But the hope among the Ukrainian troops here is the longer this goes on and the more Russian
02:08territory they take, that eventually Russia will be forced to draw down its troops in
02:12Ukraine.
02:13We're going to see some of the locals who are hiding in a cellar nearby.
02:19The streets are empty.
02:20Basically, all you can hear are generators in the distance.
02:23There's still no power here and very occasionally some Ukrainian military transport.
02:29It's mainly the elderly and those looking after sick friends and relatives who stayed
02:32behind.
02:33The people we meet stay close to the basement where they sleep for safety.
02:39No one offered me a chance to evacuate.
02:43People got out on their own, in their cars.
02:46I live alone.
02:48My daughter lives far away.
02:49I had no way of getting out.
02:57I was looking after an elderly friend.
02:59She was sick before.
03:00I couldn't just leave her.
03:04She died yesterday and we buried her today.
03:12Many have been left homeless by the continuing artillery fire between Ukrainian forces here
03:16in Suja and Russian forces nearby.
03:21My house was bombed.
03:23There's only a crater left.
03:25I was here when it happened yesterday.
03:29The house is destroyed.
03:33There's talk of setting up humanitarian corridors to allow these people to reach areas under
03:37Russian government control.
03:38But so far, it's no more than talk.
03:43I came to work in Suja that day.
03:45We didn't understand what was happening.
03:47I've been here ever since.
03:48My parents are back in the village.
03:50They're 84 and 83 years old.
03:52I don't know what's happened to them and they don't know what's happened to me.
03:57Then something we weren't expecting to see.
03:59The Ukrainian army spokesperson gets out his laptop to show these Russian civilians video
04:04from Bucha, the town near Kiev, where Russian troops were accused of carrying out war crimes
04:09when they controlled the area.
04:10The locals seem exhausted, barely able to take anything in.
04:14It's a moment that reveals more about how Ukrainian soldiers on Russian soil are feeling
04:18than it does about Russians' views on the war.
04:21Some Ukrainian soldiers seem to think that if they can show ordinary Russians what was
04:25done in their name in Ukraine, then perhaps those Russians will question Vladimir Putin's
04:29story of what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine.
04:34We don't have time to say any more.
04:35We're told it's time to leave.
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