After three days of the Ukrainian attack on Kursk Oblast, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not just a reconnaissance operation, but a much larger operation. The Ukrainians are capturing more and more towns, inexorably approaching the capital of the region, the famous city of Kursk, which in 1943 witnessed the largest tank battle in world history.
An elite brigade was sent to attack Russia
And even today in Kursk Oblast there are troops on the Ukrainian side that can be successfully considered the elite of elites, and as Forbes reports, observers they spotted elements of the 80th Air Assault Brigade among the attackers, i.e. a unit that always appears where something serious is happening. These soldiers fought, among others, in the defense of Bakhmut, Popasna, and earlier, during the spring counteroffensive in 2022, they chased the Russians all the way to the Oskol River. They were last seen during the battles for Chasiv Yar and Krasnohorivka, when they suddenly emerged on the Russian side of the border, leading a lightning attack towards the heart of Kursk Oblast.
For courage and excellent performance against the enemy, the brigade was recently awarded the Ribbon for Courage and Courage by President Zelensky for the second time. It was given the name “Galician”. Its place of stationing is Lvivbut as it turns out, it is not only this former Polish city that connects its soldiers with Poland.
– These are the first Ukrainians who were in Kosovo. This is the company that was sent there and was under my command. Many of them probably had this episode behind them and were with us, and it was a group of the first 108 soldiers. I accepted them and I will say that they were excellent soldiers, it was very good to cooperate with them – General Roman Polko, former commander of the GROM unit, participant of many foreign military missions, tells Forsal.
General Polko: They started with us in Kosovo
When the first Ukrainians arrived in Kosovo, few wanted to take care of them. The Americans commanding there had trouble communicating with them, and their completely different manner also put them off from our neighbors to the east. Eventually, they were taken under the wing of the Poles, and as it turns out, it was a bull’s eye.
– I remember a situation when I was attacked by the local Serbian population because they wanted to pull my Albanian translators out of my car, and it so happened that Ukrainians were nearby. How they stormed those Serbs. I then fired warning shots into the air, and people started shouting that I was shooting and rushed, and the Ukrainians told them that “he can shoot, because he is a commander,” recalls General Polko.
After returning to Ukraine, when the foundations of the country’s airborne forces began to be organized, these soldiers who had passed through the Kosovo school became the core of a new brigade and the entire component of these elite troops. And the fact that they are different from ordinary units is also noted by Western commentators.
Soldiers from all walk to Kursk
They cannot help wondering how it is possible that the 80th Brigade attacking Kursk uses such a variety of military equipment. Satellite photos and videos from the battlefield have revealed both post-Soviet vehicles and modern vehicles from Western deliveries. According to Western experts, combining these two systems in the heat of battle can cause serious problems. Meanwhile, General Polko, hearing such concerns, cannot help but smile and reveals where this ability comes from.
– Necessity is the mother of invention. That’s why special forces we try to select soldiers who have open mindsbecause it is not the case that equipment is given once and for all. In every situation on the battlefield, one does not rely on cannon fodder, but on an intelligent army that learns, gets to know new terrain and is able to cleverly use circumstances to build its own advantage – explains the military officer.
The 80th Air Assault Brigade consists of three line battalions, an air assault battalion, the 57th independent rifle battalion, an anti-aircraft battalion and an engineer battalion. The brigade also includes companies: tank, engineer, reconnaissance, logistics, supply, communications, radar, medical and anti-chemical, as well as the air reconnaissance unit “Foxtrot”. The brigade is complemented by an Artillery Group consisting of two self-propelled artillery battalions and platoons: anti-tank, reconnaissance and rocket artillery.
The brigade’s equipment includes: T-80BV tanksAmerican HMMWV reconnaissance vehicles, Australian Bushmaster armored cars, BTR-80, ML-TBu and American Stryker armored personnel carriers, 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers and Grad-1 rocket launchers.
