Ukraine War, 16 August 2024: Kursk (UPDATED)

Hello everybody!

Yes, me again… and with Kursk again… but, there are simply enough new developments to ready a brief update. Indeed, so many, I’ve got to update my map, too (probably before I have to zoom it out again)…

Of course, and like always when it comes to this operation, I can’t but start with another POW-postcard:

Really friendly people, these Russians of the 18^th Border Guard Battalion FSB, visible on a video taken by the 80^th Airborne right at the start of its trip into the Kursk Oblast, back on 6 August: came out and waved with their hands up and with white handkerchiefs as soon as Ukrainian were there… of course, they didn’t surrender by dozens: that’s fake news…  

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AIR/MISSILE WARFARE

-          Multiple Russian air defence positions and the ports of Kerch, Feodosia and Sevastopol have been heavily hit the last night. Details are still streaming in…

-          A video surfaced showing the wreckage of the VKS Ka-52 attack helicopter shot down by Ukrainians on 10 August in south-western Kursk. This is now the 2nd confirmed (out of 3 reported by the Russians).

- A MiG-29 of the PSU was destroyed by a direct Iskander-M-hit, at Aviatorske AB, outside Dnipro, earlier today. Fortunately, nobody from the ground crew was even injured…

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SOUTH-WESTERN KURSK

-          Glushkovo sector: one might find it silly, but thanks to their own PRBS-industrialists, it’s only today that the Russians have figured out they’ve lost Snagost – and that already some 4-5 days ago… Makes me wonder how long they might take to find out they’ve lost Vnezapnoe, too… Actually, the 103^rd TD (and reinforcements) is meanwhile… well… ‘well to the west of Snagovo’ (and Vneznapoe). The bridge in Glushkovo (over the Seym River) has been hit (by JDAMs) once again (think, this was the third or fourth time), and RUMINT has it that this strike rendered it useless:

AFAIK, there are two other bridges on the Seym, both further west. That’s including one in Zvanoe and one in Karyzh: reportedly, the one in Zvanoe was hit this morning, too. If all three are disabled, the remaining Russians in the Glushkovsky District (remnants of 17^th and 18^th Border Guard Battalions FSB, about 700+ troops, plus thousands of civilians in the process of being forcefully evacuated), are all cut off from the rest of Russia. The situation there is critical enough for the authorities (read: FSB) to be announcing that if the people do not evacuate, they’re going to be cut off from supplies.

UPDATE: RUMINT from this afternoon is that all the bridges over the Seym west of Korenovo have been knocked out and the FSB-gangs are now… erm… advancing in panic over the river using boats…

-          Korenovo: a column of VSRF’s reinforcements moving from Rylsk towards Korenovo was demolished – probably by JDAMs, the last night. That said, it would have arrived too late, because not only is Tolpino under ZSU control: Kolychevka too. With this, the Russian garrison in Korenovo is cut off from Rylsk. That said, it’s not like much of the town is still in Russian hands. Actually, it’s just its western side.

Ah yes… you might need some map to follow all of that (and what is to follow)…

-          North/North-East of Korenovo: Aleksandrovka is also under ZSU control: actually used as a base for lots of raids further north (to Rylsk, to Lgov… and beyond: traffic on the E38 from Kursk to Rylsk was interrupted in at least four different points, this morning alone). While time and again one or another of ZSU’s MRAPs gets detected on time and hit, in grand total, whenever well-combined with UAVs, these raids are wreaking havoc with the Russian planning. They’re, regularly, hitting them entirely unprepared. Here a typical example for results. In one of latest cases, yesterday, somebody (from the ZSU) overrun a batter part of one of ex-Wagner PMC battalions. Smashed them shortly after their arrival and as they were bunched together to prepare for their coming mission. Lots of the Russian social media is in tears now…

A Russian MT-LB APC knocked out during the fighting in south-western Kursk, two days ago.

-          Lgov-Kromskie Byki: the 11^th VDV (and assigned elements of diverse VSRF units) has been kicked out of Olyovka and Durovka….actually, the campers found they’ve got urgent business to do further north, so that the entire area from (at least) around Yuzhnyi via Dyakovka to Volzhin and Kauchuk is now under ZSU control. I’m only not sure if the Russians have already advanced from Kromskie Byki to Kursk or Moscow… or not… or perhaps they’re so kind to wait for the ZSU to sack them there (because there’re certainly Ukrainian troops further north along the road to Lgov).  

-          Bolshesoldatskoe: sure, there are lots of Russian troops (my estimate is at around 5,000, perhaps more, meanwhile) deployed along the line Durovo - Bobrik (which might be under the ZSU control, meanwhile), Rzhava (unclear), Bolshoe Soldatskoe (unclear), down to Birukovka (VSRF) and Budishche (VSRF). But, the ZSU is causing them lots of troubles by regular raids all the way to Shagarovo, Izvekovo and similar places. As noted on the map above, I’ve got no clear idea if there’s a ‘coherent frontline’ in that area, nor any other ideas about what exactly is going on there, but: gauging by what I hear about the chaos in the Russian chain of command, I doubt anybody there is constructing any kind of field fortifications. Above all, it’s the FSB which is in charge, and it so happens that the FSB is minding its own business: like controlling the under construction of the frontline along the E38…

UPDATE: tragically, there’s no end of Russian barbarities in Ukraine… earlier today, thugs from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade posted a video showing them piking heads of killed Ukrainian troops, and cutting off their ears… Before soon, the video made wide circles in the Russian and Ukrainian social media. The Russians have meanwhile removed it, but the Ukrainians ‘caught’ the perpetrator (apparently, call-sign ‘Pushkar’…?).

….sigh… call it that (notorious) itch in my small toe, if you prefer, but I have a feeling that when this is over, the 155th Naval Infantry will be over, too. Once and forever. At least I wouldn’t bet a single Pesos on any of them remaining alive.

-          Malyi Kamenets & Komunar: this area is where I ‘guess’ there is meanwhile the biggest concentration of the Russian troops in south-western Kursk Oblast. Alone because there are so many of them still fleeing from Sudzha, Ulanok and Belitsa (all firmly under ZSU control). And because the two Akhmat regiments deployed there are busy stopping and sending back all the Russians that are not entirely enthusiastic about defending Motherland Russia… Another big concentration of the VSRF should be in the Belaya area, as expected. In between of that place and the Ukrainian border = everything’s under the ZSU control.

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PS Is anybody related to the 72nd Mechanised Brigade, ZSU, reading this?
If yes, please, kindly contact me per personal message.