Ukraine's incursion into Russia: Why are Ukrainian vehicles marked with white triangles?

Ukraine in recent days has turned the tables on Russia.

Ukraine last week launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Russia – the biggest since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February  2022 and is unprecedented for its use of Ukrainian military units on Russian soil – which caught the military leaders unawares and left the Kremlin embarrassed.

Now, a week after the attack, Ukaine’s top military commander has claimed that his forces control 1,000 square kilometres of territory in Kursk amid fierce fighting.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi said, “The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line. The situation is under our control.”

The Ukrainian vehicles that have invaded Russian territory are marked with white triangles.

But what happened? And why are Ukraine’s vehicles being marked with white triangles?

Let’s take a closer look:

What happened?

Ukraine forces on 6 August attacked Kursk – which is around 530 kilometres south of Moscow.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that its forces engaged Ukrainian troops in Tolpino, Zhuravli and Obshchy Kolodez, the official Tass news agency reported.

Tolpino is 25 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Russian forces are still scrambling to respond to the surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incursion, which has caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee, is an attempt by Kyiv to stop Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.

Putin said the attack that began August 6 appeared to reflect Kyiv’s attempt to achieve a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the war. He insisted Moscow’s army would prevail.

Putin said Ukraine may have hoped the attack would cause public unrest in Russia, but that it has failed to do so, and he claimed the number of volunteers to join the Russian military has increased because of the assault.

He said Russian forces will carry on with their offensive in eastern Ukraine regardless.

Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that the Ukrainian military is inside the Kursk region. On Telegram, he praised his country’s soldiers and commanders “for their steadfastness and decisive actions.”

He did not elaborate.

The Ukrainian operation is under tight secrecy, and its goals remain unclear.

The stunning manoeuvre that caught the Kremlin’s forces off guard counters Russia’s unrelenting effort in recent months to punch through Ukrainian defences at selected points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov reported to Putin that Ukrainian forces had pushed 12 kilometers into the Kursk region across a 40-kilometer front and currently control 28 Russian settlements.

Smirnov said 12 civilians have been killed and 121 others, including 10 children, have been wounded. About 121,000 people have been evacuated or left the areas affected by fighting on their own, he said.

Tracking down all the Ukrainian units that are roaming the region and creating diversions is difficult, Smirnov said, noting that some are using fake Russian IDs.

The United States and Western allies who supply Ukraine with weapons have said little so far about Ukraine’s incursion.

US officials have confirmed that the Kursk incursion is a cross-border operation in which the use of US-supplied weapons is acceptable.

Why are Ukraine’s vehicles marked with white triangles?

As per The Telegraph, the white triangles were first observed in June.

They were being used by Ukraine’s Operational Command West group of forces near the Belarus border.

Now, the marking is being proudly displayed on Ukraine’s tanks, trucks and military equipment – either with paint or with tape.

The markings have caused some to label the incursion “operation triangle.”

Ukrainian sources told the newspaper the white triangles are a way to make sure their forces can distinguish between friend and foe.

Ukraine’s white triangles echo Russia’s Z symbol, which was written on Russian tanks and vehicles that invaded Ukraine.

The letter ‘Z’, which does not exist in the Cyrillic Russian alphabet, has become a symbol of support for the invasion.

Other letters including O, X, A and V were also painted onto the vehicles.

The Guardian quoted military experts as saying that the letters represented the areas where the Russian troops were sent.

The ‘Z’ could stand in for Zapad (west).

Others subscribed to the friendly fire theory.

However, some Russian military experts claimed the Z stands for Zelenskyy and the V stands for Putin.

The Russian defence ministry on its Instagram wrote that Z represents Za pobedu (for victory) and V the “power of truth”.

What do experts say about the invasion?

Emile Kastehelmi, an open-source intelligence analyst, told The Washington Post, “The best case scenario for Ukraine would probably be the following – Russia decides it’s not acceptable to leave any areas to Ukrainian hands, and will divert significant resources even from the most critical places and to get every square kilometre back, despite the losses.

“This would severely attrite the Russians, ease the pressure in other directions, and maybe even make it possible for Ukrainians to improve the tactical situation locally in the east.

“Regardless of whether the Ukrainians continue their advance, they have proved that occupation of relatively large areas is no longer a privilege of Russia. The war is now even more concretely a war on Russian soil as well.”

A high-ranking Ukrainian official told AFP that the idea behind the attack is to stretch Putin’s armies as much as possible, spreading them thinly over different areas.

The security brass told AFP on condition of anonymity that “the aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border.”

Military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady told The Washington Post, “This is definitely one consideration that it is really a signal to the West and to Ukrainian allies and partners that Ukraine is still capable of launching offensive operations. That Ukraine is capable of conducting fairly complex operations into enemy territory.”

Ex- British tank commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton Gordon told The Sun, “Ukraine has hit them hard where it hurts when they weren’t looking. And it’s becoming an absolute challenge. It has shown that actually the Russian war machine is very basic. Moscow is close enough to hear the shouts and screams of Kursk. As long as the shouts and screams are heard in Moscow, to me, that’s operational success for Kyiv.”