The line of camouflage-clad men lying face-down on the dirt road with their hands behind their backs is so long that the camera has to zoom out and pan left.
The video, widely circulated by a variety of official and unofficial accounts on social media, purports to show more than 100 Russian soldiers being taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces in Kursk this week.
The date and circumstances under which the footage was shot could not be independently verified, but it is one of many newly emerged videos that help paint a picture, at least from one side, of Ukraine’s shocking incursion into Russia.
The attack, which transformed the outcome of the war, was made possible by surprise and secrecy – a buildup of troops and equipment that caught the Kremlin off guard – but early hopes were shrouded in the fog of war and an information vacuum caused by tight-lipped official sources.
A photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry shows Ukrainian armored vehicles stationed in Russia’s Kursk region on Monday. Russian Defense Ministry/AFP – Getty Images
But as Ukrainian forces push deeper into Russia, the operation’s intensity grows as new images emerge offering glimpses into the new battlefield – soldiers hoisting Ukrainian flags in border villages, military vehicles driving through Russian streets and scores of apparent prisoners.
Throughout the two-and-a-half-year war, a parallel conflict has been playing out online, and this latest round offers a rare glimpse into what a surprise attack on the modern battlefield might look like.
All of this was picked up by an exhausted Ukrainian public in need of a morale boost, and by a host of observers trying desperately to follow developments on the ground.
“The situation is very fluid, with many variables and changes, so the images and videos only tell part of what happened,” said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst at Finland’s Blackbird Group, which analyzes open-source intelligence. “When you locate the images and videos and analyze the overall picture of the material and its direction, you can say that Ukraine is still in control and can make further advances,” he told NBC News.
For the first five days after the Aug. 6 operation, Ukraine did not acknowledge the presence of its troops on Russian soil. In contrast, Moscow’s Defense Ministry provided daily updates and shared videos of the scrambled response, trying to portray itself as in control of a crumbling situation.
But then things changed: Ukraine, seemingly pleased with the early results, approved the operation, and numerous videos began appearing on social media showing the damage and destruction in the Kursk region, many of them filmed by invading soldiers.
NBC News was able to locate several of these videos and form a clearer picture of the invasion of Ukraine and how it unfolded.
The Russian border checkpoint near the main town of Suzha, which Ukraine now claims full control over, can be seen after it was destroyed between August 2 and August 6, when the invasion began.
Then last Friday, a video was released showing a convoy of charred military trucks along a main road in the border village of Oktyabrskoye, some of which were painted with the Kremlin’s “Z” symbol for war and appeared to be loaded with bodies. The video outraged leading Russian military bloggers, who questioned why the trucks were traveling in a convoy under Ukrainian artillery fire.
“The Russian government did its best to hide the extent of the failure at Kursk from the Russian public, but modern communications technologies, particularly social media and the internet, have made this impossible,” said Rajan Menon, grand strategy program director at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank. “Not only does Putin have no control over what happens on the ground at Kursk, he has no control over what the Russian public sees and hears. The official story is completely contradicted by social media, photos and bloggers.”
The first evidence then emerged on social media of Ukrainian soldiers clearing communities on the Russian border: yellow and blue flags were raised in the Guevo settlement in the southern Suzha district, and soldiers removed the Russian flag from the administrative building in the border village of Sverdlikhovo.
One video showed jubilant Ukrainian soldiers posing in front of a road sign northwest of Suzha in the Kursk region, warning Russian forces that Ukrainian troops were approaching.
Another photo showed Ukrainian soldiers patrolling in military vehicles and on foot through a residential area of the village of Kursk, guns at the ready.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released videos of Ukrainians allegedly captured in Kursk in recent days.
But Ukraine seems so confident in its control of Suzha that on Wednesday a Ukrainian television correspondent filmed Russian troops ripping down Russian flags from buildings in the town center, soon followed by foreign journalists.
The Ukrainian Security Service Press Office said more than 100 Russian prisoners were captured by special forces during a military operation in the Kursk region. Ukrainian Security Service Press Office/AP file
And for the first time on Friday, multiple Ukrainian military social media accounts published an edited video of combat footage from the first hours of the invasion, set to dramatic music.
“The use of social media images of Ukrainian troops in Russia appears to be one element of Ukraine’s overall strategy,” said Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “They are undermining Putin by showing Ukrainian troops on Russian soil that appear to be morale-rich, well-equipped and moving around fairly freely in daylight.”
A number of videos have been posted on social media this week purporting to show Ukrainian troops capturing Russian prisoners, including one showing men lying face-down on the ground. Many of the videos were shared by “Hochu Zhit” (Russian for “I Want to Live”), a government project set up by Ukrainian military intelligence to persuade Russian soldiers to surrender.
O’Brien said the footage was important because it undermined the view that Ukraine was facing an unstoppable force. “The fact that you have large numbers of Russians surrendering inside Russia paints a very different picture of the Russian military,” he added.
