Ukrainian Paratroopers Breach Russian Defenses in New Kursk Offensive Push

Ukrainian paratroopers have reportedly broken through another section of the Russian border in the Kursk region, according to the Airborne Assault Forces of Ukraine on Telegram.

The breakthrough was achieved by units of the 95th Separate Assault Brigade, marking the second successful border breach since the start of the operation in the Kursk region of Russia.

“This is already the second successful operation to breach the Russian border,” the message read.

Drone footage, which Kyiv Post has not independently verified, shows Ukrainian forces advancing through an open field toward Russian positions. The footage reveals a demining vehicle, possibly a Russian UR-77 Meteorit or a Western M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle, followed by a tank clearing a path through a minefield.

After the mine barrier was neutralized, Ukrainian assault units were deployed onto Russian territory. The video also captures Ukrainian tank crews engaging a Russian stronghold in the border zone.

While the report doesn’t specify the precise location or timing of the breach, Ukrainian military bloggers speculate that the breakthrough occurred near Glushkovo.

Kyiv Post analysis, referencing NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) data, also suggests that this area was likely the site of the breakthrough. NASA maps indicate ongoing hostilities in that part of the front.

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In mid-September, the Khorne group unit of the 116th Mechanized Brigade reported a successful breach of Russian defenses, penetrating several kilometers into Russian territory in the Kursk region.

“We penetrated a new place, for kilometers, into Russia... a group of Russian conscripts of more than one thousand people under the threat of encirclement,” the Khorne group reported.

The Khorne group shared a three-minute video showing a Ukrainian armored column passing through the breach and heading toward Veseloe, a town behind Russian positions. According to Forbes analyst David Axe, Ukrainian forces may have reached the southern outskirts of Veseloe.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also confirmed that Ukrainian forces continue to advance in the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region.

Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on Aug. 6, aiming to draw Moscow’s forces away from eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops had captured several villages in recent months. The surprise offensive caught the Kremlin off guard, forcing Moscow to quickly dispatch reinforcements.

Russia’s military command reportedly anticipated a breakthrough on the Kursk front months before it occurred, but orders to reinforce defenses were likely ignored. These insights were obtained from military documents captured by Ukrainian special operations teams in August and shared with The Guardian.

One document from June warned of Ukraine’s plans to capture Sudzha, a key town with a natural gas metering station, which Ukrainian forces seized early in the incursion. The Guardian could not independently verify the documents, which primarily came from Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s offensive in Kursk diverted around 40,000 Russian troops from the main front line. Despite the challenging situation in eastern Donetsk, Ukraine has managed to degrade Russia’s combat capabilities, Zelensky said in his address on Sept. 20.

Russia claims to have recaptured over a dozen villages in the Kursk region during a counteroffensive, but on Sept. 19, a Ukrainian official reported that this effort had been “stopped.”

“They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,” Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military administration in Kursk, told AFP.