Three Russian soldiers seized a key stretch of the route into Sudzha shortly before Operation Potok, then, already wounded, called artillery fire onto their own position to stop an advancing Ukrainian force. Special military operation veteran Maxim Dagly, call sign Dag, told RIA Novosti about the episode.

According to Dagly, the soldiers reached high ground and, after a prolonged assault, took control of an important section of the route. This happened shortly before Operation Potok, when Russian units entered Sudzha through a pipeline.

Ukrainian forces later began pushing toward the Russian position. By then, Dagly said, the three soldiers had already been wounded. Over the radio, they reported that they did not want to be taken prisoner and requested a heavy artillery strike on their own coordinates. All three were killed, but the Ukrainian troops were unable to break through.

Operation Potok became one of the major episodes in the liberation of Sudzha in Kursk Region. During the operation, around 800 Russian soldiers carried out a flanking maneuver, moving almost 15 kilometers through an inactive gas pipeline and emerging behind Ukrainian units. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a report to President Vladimir Putin, said the maneuver caught the Ukrainian Armed Forces by surprise and helped break their defenses.