"Servicemen with the Russian BARS-Kursk 'mobile fire unit' were seen on manoeuvres in the region bordering Ukraine in footage published on Friday, with troops setting up and mounting the machine gun. "The first and main task is to cover and protect the sky, the Kursk sky, from enemy unmanned aircraft systems," said the commander, call sign 'Zmei'. "To shoot down everything that flies; to destroy it the moment it crosses the border so that it doesn't go even a kilometre further." Another serviceman, call sign 'Kana', shared that during his first mission with the unit, he had to engage in combat with an enemy UAV. "I went to the machine gun turret, I saw it (drone) on the screen. I felt a chill run down my spine. It was scary, it was my first time in combat, in firefight. But we successfully shot it down," he said. "It was probably after that, when we arrived at the temporary deployment site, I started thinking about what I had said earlier - about what could have been and what could have happened," he continued. Ukraine launched an incursion into the Russian region in 2024. 'Kana' also said that when he visited his hometown Sudzha after it was liberated from the Ukrainian troops, he saw 'only ashes and ruins' where his parents’ house once stood. "My life got split into 'before' and 'after'. It will never be the same again, and nothing will ever make it what it was," he said. "It was completely burned down and destroyed. You know, it was a heart-wrenching scene, and I wouldn’t want my parents to see what is happening there now." In spring 2025, Russia reported retaking the crucial town of Sudzha following a famous breakthrough mission via a disused pipeline, and regaining full control over the region. Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO. Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow."