Don's Weekly, 14 October 2024: Part 1

by Donald HIll

Hello everybody!

Another Monday, and already the middle of October this year. Thus, time for a review of the last week.

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Kursk- Overview

Syrsky said Russia withdrew 50,000 men from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kramatorsk, making it easier to conduct defensive operations inside Ukraine.

In three months of fighting in Kursk, Ukraine lost 231 pieces of equipment, including 192 armored fighting vehicles. Russia lost 155 pieces of equipment, including 78 armored fighting vehicles, but that count is rising fast with their recent counter attacks.

Some of the Russian airstrikes in Kursk.

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Kursk- Western Sector

When Russia smells blood, they increase their efforts. They’ve been pushing large formations into assaults that suffer casualties but ultimately overwhelm Ukrainian units on the front lines. The weakened Russian units were pushed back by some Ukrainian counterattacks, but another wave of Russian units would move the front lines back again. In some cases, Ukrainian support personnel, such as drone teams, became the front line, which is not a desired outcome. At Olgovka and Lyubimovka, the Russians believed they had Ukrainian personnel surrounded (and, indeed, their 155th Naval Infantry Brigade surrounded and summarily executed a group of UAV-operators that surrendered), but counterattacks allowed the mass of garrisons to withdraw.

MilitaryLand shows that the 47th Brigade is on the Ukrainian side of the border in the vicinity of Glushkovo. Heavy Russian airstrikes and artillery bombardments along the international border were part of their attempt to isolate the battlefield and interdict troop movements and supplies entering Kursk.

Russian vehicles and personnel suffer losses while attacking.

Russians attacked north of Lyubimovka. APCs of the 155th Marines moved into Zelenyi Shlyakh, east of Lyubimovka. Inside Zelenyi Shlyakh, 9 Ukrainian prisoners were shot while stripped down to their underwear. (Here is a blurred image).

Here is an Su-25 mission west of Veseloe.

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Kursk- Northern Sector

Most of the Russian efforts were on the western side of the bulge but the advance threatens all of Ukraine’s northern territory. If Russia advances another 7-10 km towards Malaya Loknya then Ukraine will need to pull back from this sector.

In between Sheptukhovka and Kremanoe, a Russian armored MRAP is hit and later destroyed by drones. At the same location, a Russian BTR later sprays suppressive fire in the nearby woods. Some footage is from the point of view of the BTR crew and some is from an overhead drone.

Russia engages targets it detected.

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Kursk- Eastern Sector

Russia is still pressing hard in the east although with fewer troops.

A Russian drone uses a Kh-BPLA missile on a Ukrainian position near Sudzha. The Kh-BPLA missile is laser-guided with a range of 8 kilometers and based on the Kornet-D anti-tank missile.

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Kharkiv

The ruins of northern Vovchansk offer very little cover remaining and troop density on both sides is very light. It is not unusual for Russian attacks to penetrate the front line by several hundred meters before being eliminated. Last week, a couple Russians managed to make it to the aggregate plant and wave a flag. This type of activity has been seen before at places like Krynky, the vicinity of Siversk, Synkivka and other locations. Since they pounded the aggregate plant with air strikes and thermobaric bombs two days later, this is the likely explanation of that event.

The terrain in northern Vovchansk doesn’t have enough cover for a lot of troops.

The Russians dropped four glide bombs accurately on a treeline 1500 meters south of Hlyboke.

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(…to be continued…)