Kyiv wants to hold land to trade with Moscow in any future peace deal.
From: Foreign Policy By Oz Katerji
KURSK, Russia—More than six weeks into Kyiv’s military incursion into the Kursk region of Russia, Ukrainian soldiers are still delighting in the triangle of white tape fixed to the hundreds of vehicles crossing the border into Russian territory.
It’s a symbolic “fuck you” to Russia, a cathartic response to the “Z” and “V” symbols on the Russian vehicles that invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The white triangles have become an iconic image of an operation that may just be the key to how Kyiv can win this war.
Watching the triangles being taped to the hood and side of our vehicle was a little more uncomfortable for me. While they were there to ensure that we didn’t become the targets of friendly fire, they also clearly demarcated us under international humanitarian law as combatants in an active conflict zone as Russian drones constantly surveilled the skies above us.
Foreign Policy was granted unusual access to Ukrainian-occupied Sudzha, a town in southwestern Kursk, at a time when very few journalists are being allowed into a highly active combat zone. I was embedded with a group of volunteers called 1Team1Fight, bringing crowdfunded technological upgrades—including off-road vehicles; drones, both off the shelf and custom built; and drone signal-jammers and generators—to the brigades fighting on the fronts. One of these innovations was fitted onto our vehicle: a domestically produced drone detector, which scanned the frequencies around us to identify drones. As we drove, it beeped and flashed constantly.
Voice of Ukraine 