Ukrainian Defenses in Russia’s Kursk Region Rocked by Kremlin Attack

A powerful assault led by Russian paratrooper and marine infantry slammed into the front line of the areas held by Ukraine’s forces in the Russian Federation’s Kursk region on Thursday, Oct. 10, gaining ground and according to unconfirmed milblogger reports putting defending troops to flight. 

A Russian attack backed by armored vehicles seemed to overwhelm forward positions held by Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) troops near the villages of Novoivanovka and Zeleniy Shlyakh and tore a gap around three kilometers (2 miles) wide in the western flank of Ukraine’s 100+ kilometer (62.5 mile) defensive line, early reports on the assault said.

The pro-Ukraine analyst project DeepState reported Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers passed through forward Ukrainian lines to force rear-area units to have to become involved in sometimes chaotic combat.

“It's an extremely terrible day today in the Novoivanovka district: [Ukrainian] artillerymen and drones had to go into battle,” DeepState said, in one of the first accounts by either side of Thursday’s substantial local Russian counter-offensive.

Ukraine invaded Russia’s Kursk region in August, in response to which Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered that the Ukrainian incursion was to be eliminated by Oct. 1. Kremlin forces were unable to meet that deadline and have still to push Kyiv’s forces out.

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DeepState and other pro-Kyiv sources on Friday reported that although Ukrainian forces were hard-pressed, they were still managing to effectively resist the attack, and that control of the settlements of Novoivanovka and Zeleniy Shlyach remained unclear.

Both Ukrainian and Russian sources reported chaotic and bloody fighting, with combatants becoming intermixed at times. 

“In the Kursk sector our troops are in a big ‘mixed salad’ of forces with corresponding confusion. No matter how bad things sound, the ‘vibe’ for today is a Ukrainian FPV drone destroying a Russian army tank,” DeepState said.

In a Friday morning situation report Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that “actions were in progress to defeat the enemy group that has wedged itself into the territory of the Kursk region.”

That official source claimed, without offering evidence, that Russian forces had killed or wounded 200 Ukrainian service personnel over the past 24 hours, captured five prisoners of war, and knocked out three Ukrainian tanks, an armored combat vehicle, and other equipment. Combat was continuing, the Kremlin official statement said.

Some pro-Russian information outlets declared that Ukrainian defenses had collapsed.

One mil-blogger Aleksey Zhivoff told his 100,000+ pro-Russian followers:“It looks like the enemy’s front is breaking up in the Kursk region. There are reports of big formations being evacuated. In general, they’re running!”

Other platforms credited two veteran Russian fighting units, 15 th and 810th Naval Infantry, for leading the assaults.

A more obscure, and sometimes Kremlin-critical Russian mil-blogger RybarZ said in a Friday post that advanced Russian troops in Zeleniy Shlyakh had managed a “partial breakthrough” along the 38K-30 secondary road.

“Control over Zeleniy Hai will allow Russian troops to block enemy supply lines through route 38K-030, which plays an important role in the logistics of the [Ukrainian] armed force,” the post said. “Our guys are fighting hard.”

Both Russian and Ukrainian military information platforms reported further, supporting Russian attacks to the north-east of Zeleniy Hai near the town of Olgovka, and the village of Sorochina on Friday. By midday the scale and progress of those assaults was not clear.

The Ukrainian mil-blogger and combat officer call sign “Aleksey” citing combat reports said Russian forward movement had been stopped at all locations.

“The [vulgar word for Russians] are pushing more and more cannon fodder and armor into the battle, but they aren’t trying to advance any more, they’re  trying to hold on to what they’ve taken while our guys [Ukrainian forces] are grinding them down.

“I can’t say anything about attack columns or operational encirclements, let’s not get ahead of things. But the situation looks like it’s been reversed and so far the news (on Friday) looks positive,” he said.

Azeri military analyst Agil Rustamzade said the situation in the Kursk sector was still chaotic, and that that it was neither clear that Russian forces had broken through, nor that Ukrainian forces had halted Moscow’s attacks.

“I think that objective control data will be available soon, and everything will become clear,” Rustamzade said in a Friday Telegram post.

Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) in its daily situation report on Friday made almost no mention of action in the Kursk sector or the violent battles currently in progress there, saying only: “The operation of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region continues.”

AFU commander Oleksandr Syrsky in a pre-recorded video published by the state-run news and information platform Spilniy on Thursday evening said that Ukrainian army intelligence currently estimates the Kremlin has concentrated 50,000 men in the Kursk sector in readiness for a major counter-offensive.

The Ukrainian incursion into Russia has reduced pressure on other sectors of the front, by forcing Russian armed forces leadership to shift troops back into Russia to take on the Ukrainian incursion, Syrsky said. Ukrainian forces inside Russia were substantial and the Kremlin could neither ignore them nor attack them without assembling a major force, he argued.

By early afternoon on Friday DeepState, citing reports from the front, offered a somewhat calmer evaluation of the Kursk sector and the situation there:

“The situation in the Kursk region remains difficult, but under control. It was a difficult and tense night. AFU troops are carrying out local counterattacks, but it has not yet been possible to regain control over everything that was lost. The enemy suffered considerable losses during the assault, so it will be difficult for them to gain a foothold.”