Ukrainian forces continued their rapid advances in Russia’s Kursk region on Thursday, reaching areas 35 kilometers from the border between the two countries, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) concluded on Friday in its latest analysis of geolocated images and statements by Russian military bloggers, among others.
Small Ukrainian groups advanced as far as Kromsky Biki and Moliutino in the north, according to ISW, 17 kilometers southeast of Lgov and about 48 kilometers southwest, along main roads, of the Kursk nuclear power plant.
In the northwest, the attacking Ukrainian force also captured Novoivanovka and advanced along the road towards Korenevo, where fighting had continued, while in the east it reached Martinovka.
According to ISW, “small Ukrainian armored groups” are taking advantage of “the low density” of Russian troops in the region and are advancing deep into the Russian rear as they manage to bypass Russian fortifications without necessarily trying to defeat all Russian forces there and bring the entire area under control.
However, “larger Ukrainian units” are operating in some areas of the Kursk region closer to the border and “are consolidating and fortifying some positions,” according to ISW, which could not confirm whether the town of Sudzha is fully under Ukrainian control, although it appears the attacking forces have captured several nearby villages.
Some 13 trucks believed to be carrying supplies that Russia attempted to direct to the Kursk incursion zone were destroyed in Oktiabrskoe, 28 km from the attacked Korenevo, DeepState, a Ukrainian portal that analyses developments on a daily basis, confirmed.
“Mountains of bodies in Oktiabrskoe,” DeepState wrote on its Telegram channel, alongside a geolocated video of the destroyed vehicles and multiple bodies of Russian soldiers inside.
DeepState became the first major Ukrainian resource to publish some further details about the operation, albeit limited to the first day of the invasion, August 6.
Most Ukrainian sources, and all official ones such as the Ukrainian Army General Staff, remain silent on the details of the ongoing incursion.
According to DeepState, Ukrainian defense forces launched the attack on Tuesday near the villages of Sverdlikovo and Oleshnia, which were captured after brief or no fighting.
Two small Russian units were also surrounded at the Sudzha border crossing, while Russian forces in nearby Gornal were also surrounded and hid in a local monastery.
Vanguard groups reached the rural town of Goncharovka and the suburbs of the city of Sudzha, while fighting of as yet unknown intensity began on Tuesday near the village of Zelenyi Shliakh.
“The enemy managed to stop the first assault on Nikolaevo-Darino, but not for long,” according to DeepState.
Russia redeploys troops
The Kremlin said on Friday it was moving more troops and weapons to the western Kursk region. According to the Defence Ministry, these are “army units with BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trawls, heavy tracked vehicles, Ural and Kamaz trucks” and are heading to the Sudzhansky district of Kursk.
Russia’s official TASS news agency also reported on Friday that an emergency roaming regime between telecom operators has been imposed throughout the Kursk region in order to guarantee service in the region amid the incursion of Ukrainian troops.
Russian Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev gave details of the measure: “Today at 11 o’clock, taking into account that the region is in emergency mode, we introduced an Internet roaming mode that allows subscribers of any operator to connect to base stations of all providers in order to try to solve the communication problem in the Kursk region.”
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