Marta Hychko10:10, 12.09.24

It is currently unclear whether the Ukrainians will be able to retain the territory and exchange it in any future negotiations.

During a surprise invasion on August 6, about a dozen battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with up to 400 soldiers each broke through the defenses along the Russian-Ukrainian border adjacent to the Kursk region of Russia. A few weeks before the stabilization of the front, the Ukrainians defeated poorly trained Russian conscripts and captured hundreds of square kilometers of the Kursk region.

As Forbes writes , this operation hit the authority of the ruler of Russia, Vladimir Putin. He ordered his troops to knock out the ZSU from Kurshchyna.

“This (operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – UNIAN) put Putin under pressure,” British Defense Minister John Healy said.

Embarrassed, Putin ordered his army to recapture the Kursk region by October 1. On Wednesday, Russian troops launched a counterattack along the western edge of the Ukrainian salient.

“Russia’s counteroffensive to expel Ukrainians from the Kursk region has officially begun,” said Finnish analyst Joni Askola.

The Russians targeted Snagosk, a village south of the Seim River, a few kilometers north of the border. At least eight tanks and other armored vehicles of the 51st Airborne Regiment of the Russian Federation participated in the main strike. Hours after the counterattack, fighting is still going on in the village.

“The situation on the left flank of our group near Kursk has worsened,” notes the Ukrainian analytical group Deep State.

At the same time, a separate Russian unit moved to the village of Ulanok, on the right flank of the Ukrainians in the Kursk region.

How exactly the Russians got to Snagosk is unclear. There are two ways to reach the village from Russian-controlled territory: from the northwest across the Seim River or overland from the nearby town of Korenevo. The latter seems more likely, as the Ukrainian military destroyed every permanent bridge across the Seim at Kursk, and destroyed most or all of the pontoon bridges the Russians had assembled in the area.

A delicate situation for Ukrainians at a delicate time

The General Staff in Kyiv took a great risk by giving the order to attack the Kursk region. In the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the powerful Russian 2nd Combined Arms Army is steadily advancing towards Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold located on some important supply lines.

The Ukrainian defenders around Pokrovsk are outnumbered four to one – and have recently lost their best brigade. The battle-weary 47th Mechanized Brigade finally withdrew from the front line after 15 months of non-stop fighting.

Deciding what to do with the few available forces, the General Staff in Kyiv calculated that the capture of part of the Kursk region was worth the loss of part of Donetsk,” the newspaper writes.

Although the Ukrainian generals kept several brigades in reserve for Pokrovsk – and these brigades had recently succeeded in slowing, if not halting, the Russian advance – they sent most of their best free troops and equipment to the Kursk region, including the elite assault brigades with their tanks and BMPs of the western production

Now these Ukrainians in Kursk are under attack so far from their supply lines, which are in the Sumy region.

(C)UNIAN 2024