Ukrainian troops forced out of Kursk fear Vladimir Putin knew the US would cut military aid and intelligence sharing, a top commander has said.
Lieutenant Colonel Vano Nadiradze cannot ‘shake off the feeling’ as Moscow appeared primed and captured key villages in the territory within hours of the decision.
But despite the setback, Volodymyr Zelensky’s popularity has ‘sky rocketed’ on the front since his showdown with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
The special forces officer also vowed that Ukraine will fight on with or without US aid as he slammed Elon Musk as ‘not stable’ and ‘widely hated’.
Lt Col Nadiradze and his men were among 1,000 soldiers who took swathes of the Russian region in a daring counter-offensive last August.
They forced Russia to divert its best fighters and employ North Korean troops to try and eject them from the 390 square miles they seized for over seven months.
It relieved pressure from the rest of the front and it was hoped the land would be a key bargaining chip in the peace negotiations.
But after President Trump paused military aid and intelligence sharing two weeks ago, Russia has now forced them to retreat from most of the territory.
A Ukrainian soldier in the Donetsk region on March 13 2025
An explosion erupts from an apartment block in Mariupol in March 2022
Lt Col Nadiradze told the Mail: ‘I could not shake off the feeling and impression that they knew beforehand that Trump would cut off military aid and intelligence sharing – the latter of which was a huge detriment to our efforts.
‘The very day Trump announced his decision, the Russians got two villages – Zhuravka and Novenke, giving them logistical access to Sudzha, the biggest town in Ukrainian-controlled Kursk, which the Russians have now all but taken, their flags are in the town centre.
‘There was a real danger of being encircled there, so the command decided to vacate.’
Explaining the damage done by Washington’s decision, Lt Col Nadiradze, who commands a reconnaissance special ops group, said it had ‘hurt my unit the most’.
‘We didn’t have the data about their movements, no satellite images,’ he said.
‘We controlled Kursk for seven months and could have held for some more, if not for the cutoff of the intelligence sharing in real time from the U.S.’
Lt Col Nadiradze did not mince his words when it came to Musk, who has acted as a cheerleader for Trump posting anti-Ukraine messages on his social media platform X.
‘Musk is widely hated not only in the Ukrainian army, but in the entire Ukraine, after things he has said and done,’ he said. ‘He has only himself to blame for it.’
Elon Musk outside the White House earlier this month. A top commander in the Ukraine forces said that the tech billionaire ‘widely hated’ in the country
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky arguing in the Oval Office. Zelensky ’s popularity has ‘sky rocketed’ on the front since his showdown with Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen during a press conference in Moscow. Ukrainian troops forced out of Kursk fear Vladimir Putin knew the US would cut military aid and intelligence sharing, a top commander has said
The officer claimed Musk had previously cut off Starlink, his satellite link that allows Ukrainians to operate on the front line.
‘Right before we were to carry out a very serious operation in Crimea, he cut it off and we couldn’t do it then,’ he said.
‘So I don’t trust him, he is not a stable man and I would be surprised if he stays in the Trump team for long.
‘But Starlink, while the best option currently, can be replaced, perhaps not fully, but adequately enough, there are alternatives, including the state intelligence shared by France and UK, which was a huge help during the week that the US intel was cut off.’
Lt Col Nadiradze said morale is in fact now high after their President stood up to Mr Trump in the Oval Office last month.
‘Zelensky’s popularity in the army skyrocketed, he was seen as someone unafraid to defend the state’s interests, their interests,’ he said.
‘Nothing could have won him more hearts here, among soldiers, than his unwillingness to back down and be bullied. The motivation has doubled overnight.’
While manpower is a problem, it is not ‘catastrophic’, he said, and ‘the firm belief is that Ukraine will fight on, with or without US aid’. They hope that the UK and the Europe will step up as Russia is a threat to ‘the entire West’.
A Ukrainian soldier is placed in trenches retaken from the Russian army on the front line as the war between Russia and Ukraine in the Donetsk Region
A damaged apartment block following Russian bombing in the city of Kostiantynivka in March 2025
Despite the reversal, he said the mission to take Kursk was still a success as it prevented a ‘huge Russian offensive’ on Zaporizhzhia and stopped them taking the key town of Pokrovsk.
‘We fought on Russian soil and they turned their own cities and buildings into rubble this time, not Ukrainian,’ he said.
He estimated Russia accounted for 70 per cent of losses in Kursk before the intelligence blackout but in recent days Ukraine has suffered ‘heavy casualties’.
The officer said the enemy are now ‘executing’ a number of Ukrainian troops taken prisoner ‘which goes against everything that can be considered as rules of war’.
As Putin rejected Trump’s ceasefire deal and laid down his own set of onerous conditions, Lt Col Nadiradze said he is ‘sceptical’ either side will break the impasse.
‘I really don’t believe it will happen,’ Lt Col Nadiradze said. ‘Russia has put forward conditions that equal capitulation and nobody in their sane mind would accept them. Ukrainians will reject them – and Americans too, hopefully.
‘They will try to use every ceasefire for their interests, to renew the hostilities with greater efforts, as they have done a million times back in Ukraine.’
He said he favours a Turkish, British and French led peacekeeping force in Ukraine, but warned Russia will never accept this ‘unless absolutely forced to’.
‘And they won’t be forced to,’ he added, ‘unless the current situation on the front changes – and we need help to make that happen.’
