Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Kursk has hit the three-week mark, with its forces making incremental advances in some sectors and losing small portions of ground in others.
Ukrainian forces captured the town of Matveevka and are operating west of Nechayevka, the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies (CDS) said in its latest assessment. At the same time, Russian forces repelled Ukrainian attacks near Komarovka, while the 810th Separate Marines Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet and the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade counterattacked in the area of Plekhovo-Borki-Spalnoe. Fighting continues in Olgovka and Kremyanoe, near Mala Loknya, and in Borki.
Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, command-in-chief of the Armed Forces claimed that his troops have captured about 100 settlements, nearly 1,300 square kilometers (about 800 square miles) of territory, and nearly 600 prisoners during their now three-week-old invasion of Kursk.
“As of today, we continue to make progress” in Kursk, Syrskyi told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian Militinari news outlet. The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims.
“Russia is pulling its troops from other areas and has already amassed a group of about 30,000 people, and this number is growing,” he added. “Despite this, the enemy is trying not to withdraw units from other areas. On the contrary, he is increasing his efforts in the Pokrovsk sector. We are also concentrating our main forces and means in this area.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues its whack-a-mole operations against Russian pontoon bridges across the Seim River, systematically destroying them as Russia builds new ones. As we previously reported, there are an estimated 3,000 Russian troops trapped south of the river and between Ukrainian troops pushing from the east and west.
Ukrainian drones attacked a power substation and a KamAZ truck belonging to Russia’s Sever group forces fighting in Kursk.
The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD), as it has since the invasion of Kursk was first launched, said it was repelling Ukraining forces.
“The units of the Sever Group of Forces supported by Army Aviation and artillery have repelled 11 attacks launched by AFU assault detachments in the direction of Borki, Kulbaki, Kremyanoye, Malaya Loknya,” the MoD claimed on Telegram. “In addition, Russian troops have thwarted attempted attacks in the direction of Krasnooktyabrskoye, Olgovka, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye.
Aviation, artillery and ground troops have Ukrainian military clusters of the 22nd, 61st, and 115th Mechanised, 80th, 82nd Air Assault Brigades as well as the 1004th Security and Service Brigade near Apanasovka, Borki, Bogdanovka, Viktorovka, Desyaty Oktyabr, Kruglenkoye, Kazachaya Loknya, Lyubimovka, Mikhailovka, Novoivanovka, Plekhovo, and Snagost, the MoD stated.
With the fight raging in neighboring Kursk Oblast, Ukrainian troops are again trying to fight their way into Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, according to a Russian official, media outlets and milbloggers. However, there are conflicting reports about the extent of these attacks.
“There is information that the enemy is trying to break through the border of the Belgorod region,” Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed on Telegram. “According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult, but under control. Our military is conducting scheduled work. Please remain calm and trust only official sources of information.”
The MASH Telegram channel said the incursion attempts took place at the Nekhotyevka and Shebekino border checkpoints, which are about 26 miles apart along the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast. About 500 Ukrainian troops are attacking those checkpoints, the Russian MASH Telegram channel claimed. “Judging by intercepted radio communications, the militants include foreign mercenaries from Poland, Georgia and the USA.”
MASH said that about 200 Ukrainian troops “in several infantry fighting vehicles” tried to cross the border at Nekhoteyvka. Russian forces responded with an artillery barrage.
Another 300 Ukrainian troops tried to breach the Shebekino border checkpoint, MASH said.
“There is a battle going on there now. The border guards fought back, and then helicopters arrived and fired at the enemy group,” MASH said. ‘Today marks exactly three weeks since the Ukrainian soldiers invaded the Kursk region. In the Belgorod region, the militants used the same tactics as there.”
Other Russian accounts differ.
“Nobody went into Nekhoteyevka,” the Russian FALCON Telegram group claimed. Instead, Ukrainian forces entered about two miles south at the “Zhuravlevskiy forest and were hit by fire.”
“The attack on Nekhoteyevka was repelled,” the SHOT Telegram channel said. “Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 20 personnel.”
SHOT added that there was no fighting at the Shebekino checkpoint because the front lines were pushed south of there toward the embattled Ukrainian city of Vovchansk. Russia launched an attack near that city, but Ukrainian forces successfully repelled it, the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies think tank said.
Though the Russian accounts differ, a source with direct knowledge of operations told The War Zone that the goal of any incursion into Belgorod is to protect Ukraine’s now three-week-old invasion of bordering Kursk Oblast.
Ukrainian forces are “attempting to secure or widen the flanks of the salient,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. “If successful, it will make it harder for Russia to cut off the salient from the Belgorod direction.”
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Elsewhere on the battlefield, Russian forces are still pushing closer to the key city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast. As we previously wrote, Pokrovsk, a key rail and road hub, is now a garrison city and a critical bulwark against a large-scale collapse in the region. The Russians launched 100 assaults toward the city and surrounding settlements yesterday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said on Facebook.
Russian forces may be advancing in Donetsk, but they are paying a heavy price.
Troops from Ukraine’s 425th Separate Assault Battalion are seen in the video below pounding Russian positions in a treeline with a from the Bushmaster M242 25 mm automatic cannon of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The rounds lit up the night sky.
Ukraine used its donated F-16 fighters to shoot down missiles and drones during yesterday’s massive Russian barrage, President Volodymyr,
Zelensky told reporters during a press conference at the Ukraine 2024 Independence Forum in Kyiv.on Tuesday.
“We had very good results, very good,” he explained. “Nobody talked about it, but we destroyed…in this huge attack of Russians…some missiles and drones using F-16. I won’t say how many, but we did it.”
Zelensky thanked his international partners for providing the Vipers, and once again asked for more.
“But again, it’s not enough,” he said. ‘We have a small number of F-16s, and we need to do pilot training, missions and etc.”
The Ukrainian president offered no specifics or proof about the F-16s downing missiles and drones, but a video emerged on social media that some claim one such encounter. However, the video’s quality makes it hard to confirm. Ukrainian MiG-29s and Su-27s have also been very active intercepting drones and cruise missiles.
Zelensky also said he would bring up the issue of creating a volunteer force of F-16 pilots, akin to the International Legion Ukraine set up at the onset of the all-out war to attract foreign fighters.
Next month, Zelensky said he would present a four-part plan for victory to U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
“One part of that is already done is Kursk,” he told reporters. “Another part is a strategic place of Ukraine in the world security infrastructure. The third part is enforcement – a powerful push to force Russia to end the war with diplomatic means. The fourth part is economical. I can’t talk to all of it.”
Zelensky continues to state that he does not want to entertain a peace deal with Russia right now.
“As of today not just a compromise but a dialogue with Putin…is empty, futile,” he said. Putin “does not want to end the war in a diplomatic way. He seems to be ready from a diplomatic standpoint but demands [Ukraine concedes] 30% of the land,”
A day after Russia launched its biggest aerial barrage of the war against Ukraine, it struck again, firing more than 90 missiles and drones. At least four people were killed, Zelensky said.
With the U.S. considering increasing support for Ukraine’s invasion of Russia and loosening restrictions on using donated weapons there, Moscow again made a veiled threat about using nuclear weapons.
“We are now confirming once again that playing with fire – and they are like small children playing with matches – is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, according to Reuters. “Americans unequivocally associate conversations about Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively.”
Lavrov added that Russia was “clarifying” its nuclear doctrine.
Russia’s nuclear doctrine, developed in 2020, holds that its president can consider the use of nuclear weapons as either a response to an attack by nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons “when the very existence of the state is put under threat.”
Belarusian President Alexandr Lukashenko complained about his country’s predicament and claimed he was being pressured to abandon Russia, his prime benefactor, and fight on the side of Ukraine.
“It comes to this,” he said during a speech. “Today I receive proposals from all sides that we, 99%, cannot accept.”
Russian forces say they shot down a new type of Ukrainian drone in Kursk Oblast.
The hexacopter, with a reinforced body and an additional pusher propeller, “was shot down after several attempts to land it with an electronic warfare gun,” the Russian MASH Telegram channel claimed Tuesday. “It did not respond to interference.”
While there are many reasons for developing such a drone, including delivering heavier munitions and increasing survivability, Russia claims without proof that this was designed to deliver chemical or biological weapons. “Sappers examined the device and found out that there was a self-destruct system on board. It was deactivated. The fighters of the radiation, chemical and biological protection will have to find out what kind of sprayer was on board.”
And finally, nine days after being struck by Ukrainian drones, Russia’s Proletark oil depot is in ruins.
“It took 15 years to build and one week to waste it,” one employee complained.
That’s it for now.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com