Ukraine’s expansion in Russia’s Kursk region continues

Moscow. On the third day of fighting in the Russian region of Kursk, everything indicates that the Ukrainian troops that crossed the border on August 6 have the mission of going as far as possible and, once their positions are fortified, attract Russian forces from the front in one or more of the 9 directions that, sporadically and unsynchronized, try to advance in Ukraine, while Russian aviation and artillery try to stop the Ukrainian expansion in its territory, so far (August 8) without success.

The Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have halted the Ukrainian offensive, using “supersonic S-34 fighter-bombers that dropped FAB-500 bombs on the positions of six brigades of the Ukrainian army (on Russian territory), as well as on the neighboring (Ukrainian) regions of Sumi and Kharkiv.”

The statement said: “During the day, active actions of the state border protection units, together with border guard troops, reinforcements and reserve units, air strikes, missile and artillery fire prevented the enemy from advancing. Fire is being used to defeat identified concentrations of Ukrainian army personnel and equipment. Attempts by separate units to enter the territory adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Kursk region are being thwarted.”

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However, Z-bloggers – all of them pro-Kremlin, but many of them critical of the military leadership – painted a different picture on social networks, complaining that the Ukrainian army has already occupied around twenty villages in two districts, Sudzha and Korenevo, laying mines at the entrances and building fortifications, as well as using those left behind by the Russian army in the villages. Sudzha, an important communications and logistics hub, is home to the centre for measuring Russian natural gas, which is to be transported via a pipeline in Ukraine to several European countries.

They also hold the army General Staff, whose head, Valery Gerasimov, is also the commander-in-chief of the “special military operation,” responsible for “ignoring warnings that the Ukrainian army was preparing an incursion into Kursk,” as reported a few days earlier by Dos Mayores (part of the network of Telegram channels close to the GRU, the acronym for the military intelligence directorate).

Others say that the necessary reinforcements are not arriving, which “allows the enemy to maintain control of an area that has expanded by 30 kilometers along the Diakonovo-Sudzha highway,” notes Rybar, who reports the opinion of a group of experts from the Ministry of Defense, the first channel to confirm that Ukrainian troops occupied Sudzha.

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According to Rybar war correspondent Mikhail Zvinchuk, “heavy fighting is taking place 15 kilometres south of Lgov” in the towns surrounding the city, while Yuri Kotenok, in his blog Voenkor, asserts that groups of Ukrainian soldiers are already 30 kilometres from the town of Kurchatov, where the Kursk nuclear power plant is located, but “at the moment it is premature to fear that the enemy might occupy this strategic facility, but the situation is nevertheless worrying,” he stresses.

Nikolai Mitrokhin, an independent military analyst, believes that Russia “risks losing 20-25 percent of the Kursk region,” as he believes that Ukraine will try to occupy a large area between Sudzha and Korenevo and, if it manages to hold it, which it has in its favor the additional protection of the Seim, Sudzha and Psel rivers, as well as several lakes, “it could strengthen its position in any negotiations after the war, including the exchange of occupied territories.”

kyiv does not claim to have ordered its army to enter Russian territory, but this is evident from the scale of the attack on troops and armored vehicles, and it somehow hinted at this on Thursday:

“Russia brought war to our land and must pay for what it did. Today (Thursday) I have already received three reports from the commander-in-chief (of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr) Syrskyi, reports with results that our state needs at this moment,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his video message that he broadcasts every evening.