Sudzha: We Survived

Directed by Olga Kiriy and Artem Merkushev (20250

Film Review

https://en.rtdoc.tv/films/2028-sudzha-we-survived

Sudzha in the Kursk region of Russia was occupied for seven months by Ukrainian troops between August 2024 and March 2025. Most civilians successfully evacuated prior to the Ukrainian invasion. Approximately 1000 elderly and disabled residents were left behind. This documentary follows Russian troops as they search for survivors in the bombed out villages and undergo shelling and attacks by Ukrainian Kamikaze drones as they evacuate them on stretchers.

Among the ruins they find NATO uniforms, discarded as illegal NATO troops donned civilian clothes before fleeing the Russian liberators.

The filmmakers also interview one of the middle aged Sudzha civilians who stayed behind to fight the invading Ukrainians with other unofficial “partisans” war and provide trapped civilians with food and water. He explains the Ukrainians became extremely careless when they were looting and became easy targets for partisan snipers.

He asserts the Ukrainians had the name and addresses of all Sudzha residents and were specifically seeking out FSB (Russia’s federal security force) members, police, gas officers and employees from the Kursk nuclear plant. He also reveals that Polish and Muslim mercenaries were assisting the Ukrainian troops.

What’s most striking about the documentary is the large number of corpses lying around. The Ukrainian occupiers explicitly prohibited remaining residents from burying them.