The Ukrainian Offensive in Kursk
How Ukraine breached the Russian border defenses
(Acronyms are explained at the bottom of the text)
In Mid-2024 Lieutenant General Oleksandr Sirskiy having suffered defeat after defeat since his appointment as Commander-in-Chief with his units being exhausted, torn apart and lacking most resources while trying to hold off a major Russian operation in Donbas, knew he had to repair his reputation among the lower officer corps and troops.
An operation during the summer, even with limited goals and capabilities, was going to happen under any circumstances, as Pavliuk was publicly discussing it months before.
It was hoped that the Russians having suffered extensive losses during the battles in Avdiivka, Chasiv Yar and Novomykhailivka would not be able to continue their operations throughout the summer but not only were they able to continue their advances to Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk they were able to open up 2 new fronts and further stretch the Ukrainian troops.
The Ukrainian-Russian border had remained static for most of the war with limited raids happening from time to time by both sides, the first time its steadiness was challenged was in 2024 with the Russian invasion into Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast and that’s when the idea of an operation inside Russia was born.
The Planning Process
In the Ukrainian General staff a new operation codenamed “Operation Початок” was the focus of discussion.
“Початок” means “The Beginning". The reason this operation is called that is because it’s part of a larger plan called “The Plan of Victory.”
The tactical plan considered both the Kursk and Bryansk directions but quite evidently ended up on the Kursk front, not necessarily because it had less enemy resources assigned to it but more because the terrain was more favorable to maneuver.
The Civilian regime accepted the Plan, and it was to be planned in secrecy. Only a number of people knew of it, which were either in Sirskiy’s staff or essential in the plan. The HUR was not informed, and the army itself was conducting reconnaissance and surveillance instead of Ukraine’s intelligence agency.
Sirskiy was doing one-on-one meetings with Zelensky without his staff. Foreign Partners were also not informed due to fears of the plan being compromised.
Logistical planning also happened on the highest level mainly by the General Staff and the higher levels of ОТУ-Siversk to avoid compromising the operations.
Many information campaigns happened to conceal troop movements in a textbook example of Tukhachevskiy’s ПУ-36 document and глубокий бой, an example would be the info-op that suggested that the 61st Brigade was being deployed in Vovchansk when in fact it was moving to Sumy.
Ukrainian Military Preparations for Operation Початок
The Ukrainian military, of course, had to organize its tactical command system in Sumy in order to launch the operations. That would be done through the reorganization of the Operational-Tactical grouping of troops Sumy, which was at the time responsible for protecting the border in its sector.
It was re-organized into ОТУ Siversk, more junior and senior officers from all departments were brought in to start early preparations for the offensive, although very few of them knew of the actual reason for the preparations.
Ukrainian units which were already part of the border guard had recently received a large amount of new equipment, including Senator MRAPs, new small arms and rocket launchers.
In order for the operation to have enough forces individual battalions from all over the front were gathered, this type of organization creates problems in C2 as there is no brigade command post forcing the higher command to micro manage individual battalions although Sirskiy is known for micromanaging tactical fights.
Taking a closer look at the equipment these battalions were issued with, we will see that the M1126 crews of the 80th Air Assault brigade were mainly reassigned to the 82nd brigade which with the rest of the brigade also received new small arms in the form of the CZ Bren, the German MK556 and some 5.56 machine guns of course other equipment was also issued but I haven’t tracked it down.
The airmobile battalion of the brigade received new Cougar H MRAPs and the new small arms package.
The brigade also had its Challenger II company and its maintenance battalion, with their M88A1s and Challenger II ARVs deployed.
The 80th Air assault brigade, on the other hand, was given senator MRAPs to replace its strykers, but it still had a number of Bushmasters/HMMWVs, while its armored company had T80BVs.
The 22nd was to operate with some BWP/BMP1s and PT91/T72AMTs. of course, its small arms were mainly 5.45 AK rifles.
I think that is enough for the general equipment that was used. Of course, there are other battalions that partook in the breach, including the Marder 1A3 equipped 33rd and the mainly MRAP equipped 225th.
The Ukrainian brigades were likely ordered to create new UAV protection SOPs, as we saw some very professionally made anti-FPV cages on them likely made on a higher echelon engineering unit.
Logistical preparations
As mentioned before the main sustainment plan for the maneuver campaign happened on a higher echelon so we don’t know for sure what they had estimated their logistical system could handle but we do know some interesting details about their CSS units from interior sources and of course from our own estimates.
During the reviewing of S4 military units a lack of military transportation vehicles was found, as most of the units of OK North were stripped off their trucks which were sent to OK East, there were some quality trucks in service mainly due to the work of volunteers who fundraised the equipment for the units and some trucks had also arrived recently through rail from Poland but still a lot more trucks were needed to sustain an offensive of this scale in depth.
The OTU for their work mobilized a lot of civilian trucks both specialized and regular types, the documents specifically requested a large amount of specialized trucks(water/fuel tankers) which were basically non-existent in the logistical units leading to practically all of them being of a civilian type.
The units also had little time to process them, leading to most of them being unpainted and the only way to identify them was a duct taped triangle or a UA flag. As the operation continued, the trucks were painted and more such vehicles were put into service.
The Ukrainians concealed their supply bases around the vast forests of Sumy oblast while maintenance bases were setup to repair equipment, the main one being in the village of Pysarivka.
The logistical strength was not really enough to properly sustain a large force 50-80kms from the border, but despite that, they performed the operation with what they had.
Ukrainian operational goals for the operation
Disclaimer: This segment was written after the rest of the text as at the time this information could not be shared.
The Ukrainian operation code-named “The beginning” had an ambitious goal, that being the elimination of the Russian Kharkiv grouping. That was to be done through a deep raid across the Russian border.
The Ukrainians hoped to breach the border defenses and then advance all the way to the R200 highway where they would rendezvous with a brigade sized formation from Hlukhiv. After that the 2nd phase would begin where the Ukrainian force would push into Belgorod oblast with the assumed Phase line being the Psel river, where a new supply route would be opened by a force crossing the border around Grayvoron and then rendezvousing with the main force.
From there the Ukrainians would “destroy a large amount of Russian forces” and then cross back into Ukraine.
The Ukrainians failed to reach phase 1 which warranted a change in the entire objectives of the operation into an operation to hold ground.
The Electromagnetic Field:
Communications was one of the main issues during Operation "Початок" as Starlink, the main Ukrainian SATCOM solution, was not available inside Russia because of US law. Although the Ukrainians were not really able to get a satellite replacement, they still put a lot of new communication equipment into this operation, much of it being first used there.
There is not much information available online about it but many Ukrainians and Russian sources have mentioned it, we can still talk about what we know.
The Ukrainians for a while had been using UAVs with antennas to relay signals to other FPV/attack munitions in order to conduct longer range missions. It would be easy to say that they could simply do the same with their communications as the UAVs they are using rely on Radio frequencies for their signal but let’s imagine we wanted to create a UAV that could do that, we would need a much larger antenna as there would be multiple devices that are both transmitters and receivers (and even capable of sending/receiving data depending on what the concept is) communicating between each other.
We also need to consider the difficulties that would exist in making it be able to relay COMMs that have frequency hopping or spread spectrum as the UAVs they are using usually only have an encryption key.
Of course, this, even though being possible, would not be cost effective for a unit to invest in, when they are easily covered by their existing networks relying on Starlink.
The Ukrainians in Kursk utilized such systems in combination with some ground based relay antennas as a UAV has to recharge. Unlike a wired antenna, some relay antennas were even rumored to have been dropped by UAVs, although I’m not sure if I entirely believe it.
The main edge the Ukrainians had in communication over the Russians is that their experienced units were using the best COMMs equipment the country had to offer including the hand held Himera G1 Pro radios while the Russian conscripts subordinate to the FSB were getting second hand equipment which could be easily jammed by Ukraine’s newest EW solutions.
Ukraine still had major issues like live updating in using their Digital maps like Delta/ATAK as these too relied on Starlink, although there was a bit of overlap allowing Starlink usage in some Russian villages near the border.
The Ukrainians, considering they were to maneuver, also needed to make their tactical HQs mobile, this was done through the employment of M577s and other command vehicles.
On the EW spectrum, Ukraine observed the electromagnetic(SIGINT) sector over Kursk and figured out the main Russian Frequencies over the course of a couple months. At the start of the operation, they targeted them with several EW devices, which ranged from new short range Jammers brought near the border to jammer devices specifically made to be drone dropped behind enemy lines.
The EW attack, combined with the Ukrainian AA UAVs and the strikes on civilian COMMs infrastructure leading up to the operation, left the Russian COMMs defeated.
Russian High Command Complications
The newly created Leningrad Military district was to conduct offensive operations inside Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts but after facing some difficulties in Kharkiv the operation in Sumy was cancelled, units from Kursk were redeployed mostly to Kharkiv but several strong formations were still in Kursk including a T80BVM company in Sudzha, Air assault battalions in Rylsk/Tetkino and a full rifle regiment sitting further to the rear in the city of Kursk. The problem with this is that these units situated near the Kursk border were not under the command of the FSB Border services essentially creating a dual command during operation "Початок" between the commander of the Leningrad Military District Colonel General Aleksandr Pavlovich Lapin and Commander of the FSB Border Service in Kursk Oblast Major General Potapov Viktor Petrovich, over the Operation Aleksandr became the main actor in command and control but during the first few critical days we are analyzing there were complications in the command.
The Border Service’s Order of Battle
The Russian border service in Kursk was structured in different departments the main ones were in the towns of Rylsk, Glushkovo and Sudzha in Rylsk and Sudzha there were also the commandant's offices and draft commissariats as the Border service heavily relied on conscripts, there were also some smaller departments in Korenevo, Tetkino and Khomutivka.
The larger departments had multiple battalions and Spetsnaz units under their command. For example, the department in Sudzha, led by Lieutenant Colonel Krasnichikh, had 4 Conscript based battalions and multiple Spetsnaz QRFs from multiple units under their command. Rylsk and Glushkovo were similarly structured.
The smaller departments were basically garrisons, for example, the Tetkino department was essentially a battalion of the 217th Regiment and a border guard unit for the border post, the weakest one department was in Korenevo having only a battalion from the VKS regiment basically just to keep order in the local civilian administrative center.
The Russian response to the Ukrainian buildup
The Russian high command in Kursk certainly noticed the Ukrainian brigades lining up on their border with their new tactical symbols, as well as the increase in strikes in the civilian electrical grid. Some tactical decisions were made to reinforce their forces, with reserves arriving within 15kms of the border and taking up positions in the Russian rear although it was more of a precautionary measure as it wasn’t widely believed that the UAF would move across the border with such a large force without getting permission from the United States or their allies.
Of course, there was a defensive plan in place and other factors like pre-planned withdrawal lines for the first echelon were also existent, a solid plan for the defensive effort existed, but the equipment and personnel did not.
Tactical ORBAT1
The Russian tactical defensive network in Sudzha comprised multiple echelons, the first one being mainly manned by the 17th and 18th Rifle Battalions which together had a 50km section of the border under their responsibility for comparison an average rifle battalion in the Donbas would hold around a 5km sector and spread in depth.
From Nikolaevo-Darino to the tree lines west of Sverdlikovo was the 3rd Company of the 18th Battalion manning 3 Plt2 sized positions with smaller detached disposition around them. Inside the village of Sverdlikovo was the first separate rifle company under the subordination of the 282nd regiment, which was holding a number of reinforced positions inside the village. It mostly comprised conscripts and was also given a 2B11 mortar and at least 1 MT12.
The 17th Btn3’s first company was holding a number of positions east of the village of Sverdlikovo, its second company was holding positions around the R200 highway including the village of Oleshnya near the border while its third company was holding positions from Guevo to just south of Melovoi. Each squad/platoon sized position was reinforced by a few Akhmat troops of the 1434 Rgt4 and FSB border guards with the purpose of assisting the inexperienced conscripts. Of course, there were also some “Police Posts” which were only manned by border guards.
Around Sudzha, several company underground strongholds existed, manned by conscript rifle companies of the 380th motor rifle regiment which were usually led by junior lieutenants.
Combined arms reserves also existed with the 31st Rifle battalion holding a rear line from Snagost to Novoivanovka and elements of the 4th Battalion of the VKS Regiment holding a sector from Yuzhnyi to Martynovka although their role was most likely meant to be entirely supportive as there was a Russian Forward Arm and Refuel Point(FARP5) in Martynovka.
Combat Operations:
Now we are to discuss the tactical developments of Day 1 from the west to east.
In the early morning of August 6th Ukrainian UAV6s of the EW7 battalions are moving through the endless fields of the Russian Kursk oblast with their objective being to remotely deploy jammer sticks specifically set on the Russian frequencies on specific points around the border fields, at the same time conventional EW units of the Air Assault Corps are moving their short range jammers close to the border with the goal of completely disrupting the enemy’s ability to communicate with the frontline entrenchments which were mainly manned by conscripts and lacked safe communication equipment.
Ukrainian Bomber UAVs of the 82nd brigade followed closely behind, moving in to blow the roofs off the Russian positions filled with ammunition.
The Ukrainian command observing the situation through a Poseidon UAV coordinated overwhelming strikes onto the Russian dispositions with continued FPV strikes onto the Russian blown off positions in Nikolaevo-Darino, Sverdlikovo and other entrenchments targeting the basements where the Russians were entrenched. 153mm fire was sent onto the Russian trenches in Sverdlikovo by a 2S3 battery of the 22nd Brigade, a Ukrainian M109A6 Battery also engaged targets across the cornfields near where the breach was to be attempted.
The Ukrainian air assault and mechanized battalions were given the order to emerge from the forests near Sumy and move to their cross-border objectives.
BM21 fire covered the approach of the mechanized columns, the barrage was finalized with a last wave of mortar point target fire.
UR77s of the 49th assault engineering brigade dropped their line charges over the Russian border obstacles allowing sappers of the 82nd, 22nd and 116th to disembark from their vehicles and cut the wires before Wisents of the 49th, tanks of the TUR unit and the 17th buried the AT ditches and pushed away the Dragons teeth using their de-mining plows.
First Chapter, the Breaching of the Darino front
The 1st Cmp, 2nd battalion of the 82nd was the first unit to cross the border, quickly entering the tree line 1km in front of the breach as soon as a Russian Mi28 was spotted overhead. The 225th had taken a bit more time setting up the breach as they had to set up a Biber pontoon to cross the Russian obstacles, but they too had to hide in a tree line 800 meters in front of the breach.
The 2nd Btn soon after got across the breach in force and started moving westwards until they started getting engaged by machine guns across the cornfields, fearing Mobile ATGM8 teams. The unit had to get in cover and clear the threat; the unit engaging them was a Spetsnaz GRU section conducting an intelligence mission and directing fires onto the Ukrainian columns.
The fire fight soon escalated and the Russian Plt positioned in their stronghold started delivering indirect AGS fire.
The 225th had also crossed the border by now and had entered the firefight. Their TUR tank unit was engaging the enemy platoon strongpoint and their infantry was dismounting in the tree lines in preparations to assault it.
Meanwhile, in Sverdlikovo a Ukrainian 2S3 battery was suppressing the Russian positions “Moskva” and “Cosmos” as their engineers were creating gaps in the border wire allowing Ukrainian PT91s to quickly clear the AT ditches and rush to the village entrance as there were no minefields on their way.
The Russian squad holding the entrenchment on the entrance had its pillboxes destroyed by the armor and were under complete enemy fire superiority. In the end they were destroyed.
The rest of the platoon moved their assets to set up a new defensive line.
The Russian Spetsnaz team redirected the Russian helicopter duo back to their AO9 but the Ukrainian units had hidden in time and this time they had an Igla team attached to them with which they shot down the Russian Ka-52, forcing the Russian Mi-28 accompanying it to back off later the same morning the Russian Mi28 was targeted by AA FPVs of the Project M2 unit.
The 2nd battalion, wanting to clear the Spetsnaz threat, finally directed a concentrated 155mm fire on their position. Nothing was heard from the GRU Team again.
The 225th battalion moving into the Russian strongpoint found only corpses, anyone that could, left, including the 2-3 Chechen “instructors”, 6 Russian POW10s were taken and the unit could now move further westwards.
The Russian first platoon 18 Btn started redeploying away from the border, abandoning their Plt Strongpoint in Nikolaevo-Darino and moving northwards towards central Nikolaevo Darino and the southern part of Darino.
The 4th airmobile battalion of the 82nd, having crossed the breach and supported by T64BV tanks, rushed towards Nikolaevo-Darino along the border. In the process, they lost an M1132 Stryker to an unknown cause, but it could be the above mentioned Mi28.
In Sverdlikovo the 3rd Btn 22 Bde11 knew it was dealing with a well fortified Russian company position so it took its time in securing it, having cleared the first positions, it conducted aerial reconnaissance and engaged the most exposed Russian positions, already due to these strikes Russian squads were running through the open fields trying to reach position “Moskva” those retreats were being engaged by heavy artillery.
The 22nd spotting the Russian defensive line forming engaged individual targets using mortars they managed to destroy an MT12 positioned at the main crossroad and force the abandonment of 2 AGS17s by Russian conscripts.
As the Ukrainian 4th airmobile battalion was approaching Nikolaevo-Darino from the south at around 12:00, their IMV12’s started getting engaged from the forestation on the outskirts of the village where a Russian platoon was positioned resulting in a desperate engagement with Russian mortar fire getting dropped at around 500 meters from their friendly positions, at the same time, most likely without any coordination the Russian vanguard holding a platoon position in the southern entrance began to flee northwards.
The rest of their battalion was then sent to bypass the Russian position through a farm on the north which got them right into the village center from there the house clearing would begin which took a bit of time.
This engagement to the south allowed the company from 1st btn 22nd Bde attached to 2nd Btn 82nd Bde to enter the forestation in their BWP1s and MRAPs from the north, the Russians tried to hold them back using RPGs and grenades even managing to damage one of the Ukrainian T72AMTs but still they weren’t getting any relief.
To their north the 225th battalion moved across the fields with their Marder IFVs into the southern entrance of Darino beginning another one-sided engagement with an evading Russian group, the leader of the group a Russian FSB border guard even managed to make contact with their higher HQ requesting support, of course, that request was not granted but the Russian command still believing the Ukrainians were at the cornfields near the border finally got a reality check to the situation.
Another company of the 225th supported by tanks bypassed the village entrance and instead moved through a forest, landing next to the bridge across the Snagost river which they would secure soon after blocking any Russian retreat.
In between Sverdlikovo and Darino a Russian strong point called “Moskva” started getting really packed as Russian troops from other positions trying to find shelter and food, chose to move into the protection of “Moskva’s” underground tunnels although even by that point the Ukrainian SBU was engaging it pretty heavily with FPV drones.
The Russian Coy13 Co in Sverdlikovo got so desperate, he asked for the Akhmat instructors of “Moskva” to move into the village to recover the abandoned AGS17s as they had trouble communicating with the conscripts.
The Russian akhmat troops, realizing the AGL14s were in an area under UA control, bravely switched into civilian clothing and hid in a building for 13 days straight before getting captured.
Inside Sverdlikovo the Ukrainians were about to launch their next push, this time utilizing the 33rd assault battalion, their marder IFVs crossed the breach on the minefields following Wisents of the 49th Brigade, mortar fire engaged the Russian reduced Platoon in the eastern part of Sverlikovo which was completely overwhelmed by auto cannon fire and was destroyed, the eastern side of the settlement was now under Ukrainian control.
The Russian Coy Co, his deputy and some radio operators left their command bunker in northern Sverdlikovo followed by Chechens of the 1434 Regiment, the remnants of the company were in complete disarray and the 22nd had just started bypassing the main crossroads and entering the eastern most street of the village, with tank shells flying over them the Russians holding positions around the crossroads stood their ground as a retreat was not possible, the Russian mobilized major Mykhail Feodorovich Bykov which was in charge of the platoon holding the defensive line was described by his troops as “The best in the world” during the fighting he tried to protect his troops, Mykhail would arrange the unit’s surrender on august 9th and his 28 soldiers remained alive.
The Ukrainian troops in Darino and Nikolaevo-Darino after clearing the villages for an additional one hour and a half and capturing 8 more POWs finally got to rest after 7 hours of combat operations, although they didn’t stop moving just for the troops to eat lunch they still needed to regroup their troops and conduct reconnaissance into the Russian second echelon before moving further.
The position on the outskirts was also captured by the CTG from the 1 Btn, 22 Bde, with it they took 18 POWs while the enemy suffered an additional 12 KIA15s.
In Sverdlikovo, it was not yet the time to rest. The Ukrainian troops still had to get the different streets under their control, clear bypassed positions, secure administration buildings, recover abandoned equipment and make sure the bunkers which were destroyed are clear.
The Russians in Sverdlikovo were still not completely cleared as a Russian grouping of around 10 men settled on the ex-command bunker on the northern outskirts of the village, but the Ukrainians only assaulted later in the day, which we will discuss soon.
Thoughts and Comments
The Ukrainian operations in this sector at that time can only be visualized with 100s of vehicles following the same routes across the fields, crossing the same breaches and maneuvering to their own objectives.
If that had happened in Zaporizhia then these forces would not have even made it to the corn fields as they would have been destroyed. The difference is that the Ukrainians were covering these forces with significant Air defense and Electronic Warfare equipment, some Russian units managed to fly their UAVs and observe the Ukrainian movements, more specifically the Akhmat troops from Novoivanovka and the Spetsnaz GRU unit, but they had trouble communicating to the rear as their communications were jammed, meaning that the vast amount of artillery near the border was muzzled and did not turn the Ukrainian 82nd brigade to dust.
The Ukrainians also had their own signals capabilities available as the enemy could not jam their more advanced radios, meaning that they could communicate with each other and higher command without issue. Similarly they could navigate using their Delta digital maps, as Starlink was working around that sector.
All this allowed a good plan to be executed without issue, and everything to fall into place without too much hustle as they always had communication and navigation tools available.
The Ukrainian command had a clear birds eye view through their Poseidon UAV carefully examining the environment and the threats ahead.
The Ukrainians had all the enablers to allow their good combined arms plan to fall into place and that is what exactly happened. But the reason they had those enablers is because they shaped the battlefield before they sent out a brigade to breach the border. If the Ukrainians hadn’t prepared their air defense and their jammers and their fire support then this would have been the largest Russian Volunteer Corps raid fiasco we’d see, as the 82nd would in fact be the star of the year for RT News.
Similarly we saw Russian KA52s have no effect on the battlefield as they were dealt with, unlike with Zaporizhia where the Ukrainians had no fire support, no communications, no air defense and had done basically nothing beforehand to shape the battlefield in front of them.
Second Chapter, The Ukrainian breaches of the 80th and 61st Brigades.
Operations in the how we called it central sector took on a different approach but were still just as fast if not faster.
On the night of August 4th Ukrainian SSO special operators cut gaps on the wire allowing a full rifle company of the 2nd Btn, 80th Brigade to cross the border in small 6 man groups under radio silence, the company’s task being to take positions near Police Post 45 (PP45) and then rapidly secure it at the start of the operation.
2 Days later, on the morning of August 6th after the deployment of radio jammers on the Russian rear, FPVs and drone droppers started flying.
The first target was the border post on the R200, also known as
Police Post 44 (PP44) in the FSB border service, unit 2391 of the border service had set up entrenchments and Hasco positions around the border post heavy weaponry was placed inside these positions even when they were unmanned and the Russians were in their sleeping quarters.
These positions became prime targets for Ukrainian UAV droppers of the SSO and Nightingale units, similarly ammunition depots placed in repurposed smaller buildings around the post were struck by AT mines while mortar fire suppressed the border guards which were hiding in the administration
buildings.
The 2 Platoon positions near PP44 were also heavily targeted, with the one on the R200 suffering many hits, by Missiles, mortars, FPVs and drone droppers with likely multiple KIAs, the northernmost position was also struck by mortars and UAVs but it sustained much less damage, only suffering 2 WIA16s which they would later manage to evacuate.
On the south-east of PP44, a 2km long entrenched position with 3 strongholds was manned by the reduced Russian 1st Platoon, 2nd Company, 17 Btn with 20 men, 4 sergeants, and reinforced by 8 border guards.
On the morning of August 6th mortar fire struck the northern most strongpoint, shocking the troops who were unable to communicate with their higher HQ17, soon after tanks of the 61st brigade opened up on them destroying their pillboxes.
The Russian troops as they were trying to recover from the initial shock start taking fire from a dismounted Ukrainian company of the 99th Btn who setup on the treeline right across them.
On police post 45(PP45) there were 19 Russians, 9 Border guards, 6 Conscripts, 1 Contract soldier(SL18) and 3 Mobiks.
Around 6AM the police post got struck by the first FPV awaking the Russian soldiers, over the course of the next 2 hours they would receive an FPV drone every 3 minutes additionally Baba yaga UAVs dropped mines and other drone dropped munitions onto their fortifications completely pinning them down, a Ukrainian T80BV platoon of the 80th Air Assault Brigade soon arrived doubling the explosive mass received on target by this point the Russian position had already suffered multiple WIAs and the SL of the Russian conscripts was KIA.
Behind the enemy lines, the Russian command post of the 17th battalion was struck by multiple missiles likely Brimstones delivered by the Ukrainian SSO, in the strike 4 soldiers were instantly KIA and 3 more were wounded including one lieutenant, everyone was concussed and their CP19 had collapsed on them.
The commander and his deputy took 2 conscripts and 1 sergeant and headed northwards potentially to make contact with their higher HQ with them taking all working radios, according to 3 Chechens attached to the CP from ex-police roles likely acting as MP20s they told the Russian officers to leave the command post while they stayed although what really happened remains unclear.
A Russian senior lieutenant that stayed took the 20 conscripts and ordered them to move to the canteen near Gogolevka while the 3 Chechens and 2 sergeants stayed on post only for a little bit before fleeing northwards themselves.
2S1 Bty’s were used to strike the Russian reserve groups specifically of the 380th Regiment around Sudzha, while other strikes by aviation, heavy artillery and UAVs happened in a number of structures inside Sudzha including the ministry of interior, the draft commiserate, the HQ of the FSB border service department “Sudzha” and other objects in and around the town.
The Ukrainian rifle company in the forest near PP45 was anxiously awaiting the operation to begin after sitting in the forest for 48 hours due to weather related delays. A red flare, the signal to the start of the operation, appears in the sky.
The rifle company moved onto their assigned positions, setting up machine guns in the forest and lighting up the Russian police post, most of the Russians in the post believed that the machine gun fire was their own ammunition detonating from all the strikes which were occurring.
The Russian border guards on post tried to fight back with their rifles against the oncoming Ukrainian assault groups but ended up completely unmatched and instead suffered more KIAs, the Ukrainians approached and dropped grenades inside the concrete bunkers by the end the Ukrainians captured the post without casualties while the Russians suffered 3-4 KIAs and 9 POWs were taken 2 of which were WIAs with only 3 managing to escape.
Simultaneously, an SSO section moved onto the road through the forest to block Russian reinforcements while the other sections moved onto a Russian detached squad in the forest holding a small position which was completely clueless to the situation around them and lacked any communications, the position was completely destroyed and an unknown amount of POWs were taken, soon after security was setup around the forest by the SSO and medical units moved in and setup an aid station, the forest was also used to process POWs of the 80 ДШБр before they were picked up by trucks and sent into Ukraine.
After the capture of PP45 Ukrainian engineers of the brigade rushed ahead in civilian dump trucks and tractors to fill the AT Ditches as soon as it was filled a tank with mine plows moved ahead to clear a path around the Police post.
Now the rest of the 2nd battalion is moving ahead to cross the breach.
The Russian position in the treeline in between Oleshnya and PP44 continued to be engaged in heavy firefights with Ukrainian infantry, at times tanks of the 61st could be observed engaging PP44 but there was nothing that could be done about it as they lacked any AT weapons.
The 2nd Battalion of the 80th brigade now has moved in force across the breach and is rapidly moving onto the next Russian platoon stronghold near Melovoi. First, artillery struck the forest, followed by tank fire from the advancing column. The Russian D30, which was on position, was set on a direct fire configuration in an attempt to strike the Ukrainian vehicles, but to the oncoming fire they were not able to hit any.
The Ukrainian mechanized companies took a right turn moving around the edge of the forest out of the enemy’s LOS (line of sight) while the tanks stayed on the road and continued to engage the position.
As the Ukrainian dismounts approached across the fields, the Russian conscripts, completely shocked, surrendered to the UAV above.
On the Russian position in between Oleshnya and PP44 the firefight continued but the Russian machine guns started running low on ammunition and their radios were dead with no contact having been made for the last 5 hours, the Russians decided to flee from their position in small groups trying to reach their HQ, the northern most squad was carrying their WIA sergeant making their retreat much slower than the rest of the Platoon which will result in an interesting scenario which we will discuss on the later days.
The Platoon strongpoint on the R200 above PP44 with the company staff also abandoned their position to seek shelter in the Gazprom facility near the border post. They had already suffered casualties and their position was completely destroyed by Ukrainian fire.
In the direction of the Ukrainian offensive there was a Russian tank company deployed which was scattered around the front, 2 tanks were being moved from their maintenance base in Martynovka around the R200 route on the back of Kamaz 65221-22s they stopped next to a Russian FSB checkpoint near an intersection. Ukrainian air recon directed artillery fire onto the tanks, the Ukrainian battery commander of 6 2S1s managed to hit the tanks on his second shell, burning down both of them and their transports as a bonus the FSB checkpoint was prompted to retreat.
In the sector of the 2nd battalion, an attached scout section mounted on a HMMWV drove around the forest to its northern side to secure the battalion’s sector, an abandoned D30 howitzer was captured by them.
The 1st Battalion moved across the border by this time and regrouped in the forward most forestations likely hiding from the Russian helicopters, which should have started appearing by this point if our chronology is right.
On PP44 Ukrainian sappers began clearing the main road from obstacles to allow AFV21s and infantry to start clearing the Ukrainian side of the border post and the abandoned trenches to the southeast of it.
Ukrainian 2S1 batteries continued striking the 2nd echelon positions in corporation with air recon and FPV teams of the 8th SSO regiment./
The northern most 1st echelon position on the map continued getting struck so much so they could not walk outside the position to make contact with the mortar team nearby.
The 1st battalion came out of the forests and began their movement to Gogolevka in an outflanking maneuver, which aimed to cut off multiple Russian platoons. The Russian primary battalion command post was the first major target in their sights. On their way to the CP, they passed by a small Russian OP (Observation Post) but no fighting can be observed there. It is likely that it was not manned, but it could also have been abandoned.
2nd Battalion appears to have stayed in their position for the remainder of the day, likely slowed down by POWs and enemy fires.
Speaking of fires, Russian SU25s became active over Sudzha, likely engaging blindly last known positions transmitted through the Leningrad military district command structure.
2 Russian tanks from the armored company in the area moved into a firing position in southern Goncharovka likely to indirectly engage 2nd battalion near Melovoi using a UAV, but their position was discovered by a Spec-Ops team of 8th regiment and then subsequently struck by FPVs the unit was demobilized and their vehicles were abandoned.
Inside position “Krest” the commander of the platoon sized reserve group Aleksandr Aleksandrovich still maintaining a wireless communication line with the FSB office in Sudzha made several attempts to coerce them into allowing him to retreat from “Krest” which was getting constantly bombed but the FSB officers likely completely blind to the situation on the border were telling him that the situation will be resolved.
Back on the border, the Ukrainian 99th Battalion, 61st Brigade after the trenches in between PP44 and Oleshnya were abandoned, started their next move with a mechanized company unloading its infantry just outside the Ukrainian side of the border post. Moving through the cleared lanes created by sappers, they started clearing the different structures before taking positions from where they could rain in effective fire on PP44 with their machine guns.
A subunit from the company moved to the east, entering a strongpoint of the abandoned trenches leading to Oleshnya.
In the heights in front of Oleshnya, a different company from the 99th Btn was to undertake a daring mission to breach straight through the entrenched positions of 3rd Platoon/2nd Cmp/17th Btn.
Under the cover of tank fire, a UR77 moved in and dropped its charge over the minefields, following behind engineers dismounted from their vehicles and cut the wires connecting the different dragon’s teeth together. This allowed tanks with mine plows to push the disconnected dragon’s teeth into the AT ditch and bury them, with some additional digging to stabilize the crossing the company was able to rush through engaging the pinned defenders with 0’50 fire and landing behind the pillboxes of the stronghold.
The besiegement of the Sofievsky Stronghold had begun.
Back in the Russian command post of the 17th Battalion the disorganized Russian bunch was blissfully unaware that there was a motivated mechanized battalion moving onto them to overrun them but before we continue with the developments here, let’s quickly rewind the events that have occurred on the post.
After 3 Brimstone strikes on the post itself it was abandoned the Russian Co22 and his deputy took 2 conscripts and 1 sergeant which moved northwards with them taking all working radios, a Russian senior lieutenant in charge of the comms on the post took the remaining 20 conscripts and sent them to the canteen while the 3 Chechens likely acting as MPs remained at the post before fleeing northwards themselves.
Now from here the Chechens after fleeing found their commander’s group being dazed and confused in a treeline 200 meters to the north passing them they took on a 1.5km march to a random windmill they found where they hid inside until they got captured the following day.
The commander’s group(Marked by C2 on the map) most likely didn’t get captured as there is no record of them but we don’t know exactly where they went we assume they took a different route likely moving through Goncharovka and into Sudzha proper doing a 6km march over just a few hours although we need to take into account that they had working radios and could have arranged some sort of pickup point near Goncharovka.
The bulk of the conscripts in the canteen had a bit of a different experience, after some time of sitting and waiting 3 more missiles fell on their new position causing more KIAs, in order to avoid casualties the senior lieutenant ordered the conscripts to withdraw in small groups, he personally took command of one of them while the two sergeants with him took command of one each.
These groupings then tried to escape on their own.
As the Ukrainian 1st Battalion arrived at the command post, they found it destroyed and burning, the 2 reconnaissance HMMWVs leading the convoy moved across the bridge into Gogolevka followed by the mechanized units they overrun the canteen and the smaller Company command post of the 1st Company of the 1434 Rgt in which documents and maps were found, additionally one of the conscript groups was found and captured with them the senior lieutenant we’ve been talking about.
Another grouping hid in the area for 5 days before getting captured, while the third one managed to move out of the village.
The Ukrainians had just completely destroyed the Russian tactical command before they even understood what was happening.
In Oleshnya the Russian resistance collapsed as the Ukrainians from the 99th Battalion continued clearing their positions, on the height a destroyed Kamaz truck was visible next to a smoking hasco bunker a little to the side you could see blown out trenches and a collapsed concrete bunker, the position was totaled.
The Russians, which were holding the trenches in between Oleshnya and PP44, continued to withdraw but the last group of conscripts which was carrying their wounded sergeant took a wrong turn and started moving southeast along the border.
The northern most position had suffered around 70% casualties at this point from the different strikes that were occurring on it, WIA/300s could not be treated because of lack of medical equipment and training leading to casualties bleeding out and dying they could only evacuate 2 WIAs. Attempts to reach the mortar team 100m away were unsuccessful as they could barely lift their heads outside their position, in total 12 conscripts and 1 NCO23 remained standing from the original 40-43 people.
As a final note around the evening, a Russian FSB checkpoint outside Goncharovka retreated into the farming storage facilities of the town in a
Tigr-m similarly a bunch of smaller OPs (Observation Posts) along the R200 had done the same (Dismounted) throughout the day.
In the evening a reconnaissance section of the 80 OSHDB arrived at its VDO24 on the road near the Russian position “Krest” the approach would be made dismounted to avoid enemy ATGM fire, what is about to be described is the most impressive mission we’ve seen from the first 3 days of the operation a commenter said that the assault played out like a “Call of Duty” mission.
The 9 man unit dismounting from their HMMWVs unloaded explosive charges as they were set on assaulting the underground Russian stronghold of position “Krest” which was manned by 44 soldiers.
The section moved close to the position without engaging it, managing to move behind the enemy pillboxes without getting spotted.
Outside the position in a treeline a lone Russian soldier was holding guard on the flank, a blaze of fire took him down instantly the section rushed through the treeline and cleared an exposed wooden bunker from there the unit moved into a concrete caged BTR position which was used to cover BTRs from IDF25 and FPVs those positions had doors on both sides.
The Ukrainians used their charges to blow up both doors into the position and found their way into the main part of the structure moving down the tunnel south they found Aleksandr Aleksandrovich(Russian Plt Co) rushing out a sleeping quarters where he was shot down, the Russian conscripts in the sleeping quarters surrendered as they were not ready for an engagement.
The Russians manning the firing positions were now alerted of the Ukrainian assault and started moving to cover their approach but the recon unit was quicker than they expected a Russian PKM gunner before being able to set up on the hallway was blazed by rifle fire, being wounded he fired from a sitting position with his machine gun killing one Ukrainian after an intense firefight the Russian PKM gunner was taken out.
The rest of the left wing mainly consisting of conscripts was terrified and surrendered while the right wing had already started to flee towards Goncharovka, an estimated 2-5 KIAs including an officer happened on the Russian side while ∼10 POWs were taken only for a cost of 1 KIA. 2 PKMs, 1 NSV and 1 Kornet were captured with a lot of ammunition and food but most importantly vehicles could now bypass the AT ditch through the road without having to face the pillboxes or the heavy equipment on “Krest” giving them an open door to Goncharovka.
The final events that occurred on this day at this part of the front were the clearing of a Russian entrenchment in the entrance of Gogolevka, of which the details are unknown for and the capture and the final movements of 1st battalion.
First, a recon unit moved into the abandoned trenches along the R200. It cleared the empty position and captured an NSV, an RPG and a PKM, as well as abandoned ammunition left behind by the fleeing Russians.
After that a company from 1st battalion moved into the woodworks north of the R200 and cut off potential withdrawal paths for PP44 and for the northern most entrenchment completing the encirclement of 2 Platoons from the 488th and unit 2391 of the border guards or what was left of them.
After those operations the units stopped for the night and waited until the next day.
Thoughts and Comments
The operations in this sector are absolutely brilliant from an operational art perspective.
Firstly the Ukrainian 80th air assault brigade clearly was not going to waste any time and had planned to move at an incredible speed, firstly they moved a rifle company right next to an enemy position in order to surprise it after a mix of supportive fires, before the Russians managed to get their heads up from the constant FPV strikes they had grenades being thrown down their bunkers from enemy infantry, they didn’t hear any vehicle coming towards them, the Ukrainians simply appeared next to them. Even their movement towards the forest was done under complete and utter secrecy, they didn’t use radios just in case they were caught by the enemy, instead they were given the order to assault with a red flare. To follow up the capture of the enemy position they sent fundraised tractors to clear the minefields and then dump trucks to fill in the AT ditches, they found creative solutions to one of the hardest missions a unit can perform, any NATO commander would refuse to attempt a breach without a specialized higher echelon engineering unit supporting them, but the 80th air assault brigade did not have such a luxury.
This is important to understand for every maneuver commander, you don’t need to think inside the box, such creativity is often born through necessity. When you have to do a combined arms breach due to 10 days and you have an engineering battalion which is at 30% manning and lacks even the most basic of equipment than you are forced to think out of the box as you don’t even have a box. Now imagine using both the tools inside the box and then those outside it, that is when you truly unlock the full potential of your unit, when you are not trapped in a box, problems in combat rarely are as simple as a chess move and they require more than a toolbox to be solved.
I also need to comment on the strike at the Russian headquarters which honestly played out incredibly, before the Russian command post even understood what happened to their roof, they had blue tape around their eyes and cuffs on their wrists.
In a less sarcastic tone, they were destroyed from the brimstones before they could take a decision, chaos had taken over and they were already on a rout, they likely panicked as their only radios didn’t work and they knew that there was some sort of operation happening by the enemy. The Ukrainians didn’t waste time in catching up to them just in case they restarted operations from a different location near Gogolevka. As soon as the breach was created, 1st battalion rushed through with their only stop being Gogolevka.
Even though the push at the command post was not necessary as it had already collapsed and the officers escaped anyways, 1st battalion also achieved a second objective, that being the complete encirclement of the strongest Russian position on PP44.
Third Chapter, Approach on Novoivanovka
After the Ukrainian units breached the lines at Darino in the morning, they wanted to continue and also breach the 2nd Russian line at Novoivanovka but before we discuss the tactical details of the 2nd half of August 6th, let’s get an overview of what happened on Novoivanovka during the morning.
Early in the day, the 3rd company of the 31st rifle battalion manning the 2nd echelon positions around Novoivanovka was struck by artillery fire.
Communications were down from the Ukrainian electronic warfare campaign and no contact could be made between the Btn HQ and the positions. The Russian deputy commander of the 31st Btn took it upon himself to go down to Novoivanovka himself and take control of the situation.
Arriving in position, he ordered the Conscripts in Zelenyi Shlyah to leave the exposed trenches and get into the village for cover.
An akhmat UAV unit arrived on his position and with it they tried to get a UAV over Nikolaevo-Darino to check on the situation.
When he realized how quickly the Ukrainians were advancing, he ordered the conscripts to go to the pre-assigned fallback line in Zhuravli, the group led by a lieutenant acting as the Coy Co.
The Russian Captain set up his MT12s to the south towards the AT ditches and prepared to face the Ukrainian mobile units.
The Ukrainian 225th began their movements, sending a company to clear the hamlet of Nizhnii Klin.
The Ukrainian 4th Airmobile battalion in their Cougar H MRAP26s advanced towards a forward Russian reserve position on the road which they were to capture.
In Kremyanoe, a unit of Russian special operations force called “Anvar” was deployed. Anvar had communications with the higher HQ and could coordinate the D20s, which withdrew to the rear and an Iskander battery, which was rapidly deployed in support of the defense.
Meanwhile, in the village of Sverdlikovo, the Ukrainians were planning to capture the command bunker on the northern part of the settlement and had already begun softening up the defenses with tank fire.
The Airmobile battalion bypassed the AT ditches through the main roads and moved within 500 meters from the position engaging it with 0.50cal fire at some point they moved off the road and into the field to the left of it while a civilian car with unarmed Chechens in it moved straight through the firefight.
Inside Novoivanovka 2 cars with troops from the 1st Battalion, 9th arrived getting reinforcements into the settlement. The captain wasn’t aware of the reinforcements coming as he had no communications.
The 4th AM Battalion entered the entrenchment with their infantry while their Cougar MRAPs followed them from above. During the clearing “Anvar” was flying its UAV from above and monitoring the situation at once, they laser signaled a duo of MRAPs for a krasnopol shell which fell on them shortly afterwards. The MT12s from Novoivanovka also engaged the Ukrainian units.
The Ukrainian infantry had a better time clearing the trenches as the Russian resistance was already broken and the firepower was on their side. We have no account of any surviving Russians from that trench system. Towards the end of the clearing “Anvar” coordinated an Iskander-M missile onto a grouping of Ukrainian vehicles near the road causing serious casualties, surviving vehicles were used for CasEvac27s, Ukrainian soldiers that partook in the operation called the engagement a defeat because despite capturing the position the battalion was immobilized. The Ukrainian infantry was almost unharmed and 95% of their guys were unharmed according to the testimony.
The Ukrainian infantry remained in the trench until the next day.
Meanwhile, the 225th was forming up to advance deeper.
The 225th Btn started their movement and 30 minutes later were inside the Zelenyi Shlyakh, inside of which they destroyed a Russian UAZ loaf likely used for logistics. The unit camped on this position throughout the night and would get reinforced through the night with mortars.
A Russian platoon position on the east of Leonivido was also abandoned, likely due to the fighting nearby.
Meanwhile, in Sverdlikovo the Ukrainians launched their assault on the command bunker, from the south Ukrainian infantry pulled up on their BWP1s and got deployed nearby clearing some abandoned positions across the road from the bunker, from the west a Ukrainian Stryker platoon supported from 2nd battalion supported the assault, eventually the position fell and 9 POWs were taken with it the operations for the day stopped and the units camped for the night, the only remaining resistance was in the major’s group in the village center.
Thoughts and Comments
The Ukrainians in this sector managed to achieve significant advances during the first day of the offensive, which is why the 82nd’s movements are split into 2 sections.
In the Novoivanovka sector, the Ukrainians tried to secure the trench system on the Zelenyi Shlyakh-Sverdlikovo road with their 4th airmobile battalion, perhaps overconfident from their previous engagements, they bunched up a large amount of their vehicles around the trench system and an opportunistic iskander strike immobilized most of the battalion, in a single swoop while other vehicles were struck by the deputy commander of the 31st battalion with MT12s and of course some Krasnopols.
The captain at Novoivanovka played a critical role in the defense, he may have not single handedly defeated the UAF but what should be recognized is that while the officers from the 17th Battalion’s command post fled, when their communications were gone, he went straight into the frontlines to organize a defense, he did not leave his young conscripts to their fate, his courage should be pointed out and his defiance may have just been operationally significant as you the readers will find out later in the text.
Chapter 3.5 The Guevo Axis on August 6th
In the Gornal-Guevo axis we’re not going to analyze with as much detail as there are a lot of uncertainties and general lack of information, but we will still include a section so we can have a better operational picture.
In the morning, strikes happened throughout the Russian FLOT, including the entrenchment on the northern entrance of Gornal and the Nikolskyi Belgorskiy Monastyr where Russian Mortars and infantry were positioned.
Infantry from the 101st Battalion engaged the detached squad on the northern entrance of Gornal with fire and likely mortars. The firefight probably lasted multiple hours. Eventually the Russians retreated into Gornal, proper where they remained encircled for the rest of August 6th.
While on the Monastyr Ukrainian mortar fire struck the unsuspecting Russians which were positioned on Height 185.
The Ukrainian unit likely SSO crossed the Psel river under the cover of fog through a small bridge and managed to encircle them inside the Monastyr fighting would continue throughout the day and the fate of the Russian grouping is unknown they could have all died or potentially managed to withdraw.
The day ended with the Monastyr under Ukrainian control, entrenched positions outside Gornal secured and a Russian unit encircled inside Gornal.
Day 2
Fourth Chapter, The Capture of Novoivanovka and the Exploitation following it
In the early morning mortar fire blazed the Russian positions inside Novoivanovka followed by 0.50 fire from the last motorized company of the 4th airmobile battalion. The Russians had to retreat 100m inside the settlement and abandon their heavy equipment. WIAs were suffered and 2 UAZ Casevacs managed to enter the settlement and evacuate some casualties.
Further south 3rd Battalion was on their way to fully breach the Russian defense.
2nd Battalion with its strykers moved to the entrenchment that the airmobile battalion captured in order to evacuate the infantry while engineers of the brigade with M88s and Challenger 2 ARV28s recovered the equipment. This evacuation took multiple hours.
Inside Novoivanovka the Russian unit was to be evacuated and recently arrived cars of the 810th started moving towards Novoivanovka from Malaya Loknya.
The Ukrainian 3rd battalion had just moved into Leonivido from 3 axis one company advanced directly through the village, another just to the east of it which was engaged by krasnopols and FPV’s due to “Anvar’s” air recon and another moved towards the eastern most entrenchment of the Russian 31st Battalion and began clearing it.
3rd Battalion made its way through Leonivido and 2 companies moved north while leaving a dismounted platoon on the road to block any attempts to breakout of Novoivanovka. During that process they ambushed 2 Russian cars moving towards Novoivanovka.
The third company continued clearing the entrenchment while reinforcements in the form of an additional company from 2nd battalion were moving towards Viktorovka to rendezvous with 3rd company.
Inside Novoivanovka the Russian captain ordered the withdrawal in small groups towards their fallback line in Zhuravli.
Inside Malaya Loknya there was a platoon sized force which withdrew from their trenches near Nikolaevka the previous day while in Viktorovka there was the platoon that abandoned the eastern most 31st Btn position, the only fresh unit was a platoon from 9th Regiment in Nikolaevka which arrived from Belgorod via truck as a Ukrainian soldier said “they waited for us in the villages”.
3rd Battalion continued Their exploitation northwards with 1st company moving on to assault a Russian position near Sheptuhovka on a forest where unsuspecting Russian reserves of 5th battalion of the 810th Brigade were forming up behind them the 2nd company of 3rd AAB(Air Assault Battalion) was following closely but they were to setup their M1126 Strykers into a different forest to prevent any potential counter attacks from Zhuravli or Pogrebki and they were to do all that while maintaining a low signature.
On the road to Viktorovka Ukrainian units arrived at 1km from the village after having cleared all the abandoned Russian positions, eventually they would proceed into the village later in the day, the details for the fighting are unknown but what is known is that both elements of 2nd and 3rd battalion as shown on the map were involved in the fighting against the conscripts of 3rd Plt 3rd Coy 31st Battalion which were lead by sergeants.
In the village of Kremyanoe Russian marines of the 1st battalion started arriving on this date around 40 people arrived via car reinforcing the “Anvar” unit of the Akhmat which was present in the town, 150 marines of the 2nd and 3rd companies would eventually arrive over the next few days. Vykhor group consisting of international volunteers conducted several strikes using their dropper UAVs onto the village, which resulted in at least 4 casualties for the marines.
In Sheptuhovka there were 44 Marines from 5th Battalion while an additional ∼25 had an equivalent patrol base in a forest on a nearby forest.
1st Company of 3rd Battalion arrived on the forestation outside Sheptuhovka with their 0.50 M2 Brownings providing cover fire. The infantry disembarked from their m1126 Strykers and started their assault. They planned to completely cut off the Russian unit and destroy it but during their movement the Russian unit started to flee towards Sheptukhovka with only some wounded guys trying to hide, at the end the Ukrainians managed to capture the position and with it some POWs were taken, put onto Strykers and sent back across the border.
2nd company took positions inside the forest on the Pogrebki road and hid or withdrew their vehicles to conceal the advance from any Russian air ISR.
Inside the forest was a Russian BM21 with its crew, which had withdrawn the previous day from the hedgerows north of Sverdlikovo, it was promptly captured.
Soon after, a Russian UAZ Bukhanka likely moving to resupply the Russian unit at Kremyanoe was ambushed resulting in its driver getting killed and the vehicle with its EW sensors being captured, again after some time another vehicle this time an UAZ 469 moving to Kremyanoe with marines of 1st company, 1st Battalion appeared before getting blazed by a Stryker APC29 from it 4 KIAs were extracted and 2 POWs were taken. In order to maintain their low signature, they put the KIAs back into the car and closed the doors to give the impression that it was simply parked there to enemy ISR30.
Through these events we see that Ukraine was able to effectively cut the most efficient enemy supply routes to the units of the western sector, establishing new supply routes would take some time especially with the intel situation in Russian FSB and Leningrad military district commands which weren’t even exactly sure of Ukrainian operations in this sector until august 8th, of course the Russian marines in Kremyanoe came prepared with their packs and they had food/water on them for at least 3 days and even if that ran out, the wells in the village would keep them alive.
The 82nd Brigade through its actions managed to basically secure the entire height line and had achieved some great progress towards the full operational goals and reaching the E38 highway but these quick gains will prove to be more of a hustle to the operation as the flanks and logistics will not be able to catch up.
To the west while 3rd Battalion was moving north, the 225th began its movement towards Korenevo, their objective being to block Korenevo and the Russian 3rd Battalion of the VKS regiment from the south/east.
Inside Korenevo, the garrison of the FSB office (3rd Btn, VKS Rgt) was on alert and had occupied critical positions in and around the town, including the gas station on the Rylsk-Sudzha road where 2 radio towers critical for the Ukrainian communications were.
In Olgovka 3rd company of an unknown battalion, 200 Bde was setup mainly in the central and eastern parts of the village in which they arrived one day before the start of the offensive.
The Ukrainian 225th was to advance and secure a number of heights around the sector, the most important one being H237 (Height 237) on the Olgovskaya Roshcha tract forest south of Kremyanoe, where the 1434 Rgt’s CP was positioned.
The Ukrainian 225th battalion started its maneuver right after clearing Novoivanovka, setting off to Liubimovka, moving around its perimeter they only left a small force behind while the convoys moved towards their objectives to their northwest.
The Ukrainian armored groups of the 225th moved through the fields securing Height 218 to the south and Height 217 while elements of the unit entered the Kultura Forest to the south and the Olgovskaya Roshscha forest landing near the command post of the 1434 Rgt.
The village of Liubimovka was secured mainly by motorized elements of the 67th TDF31 battalion with one of the units clearing an abandoned Russian entrenchment in Tolstyi Lug, generally the 2nd company of the Russian 31st rifle battalion abandoned its positions and moved into the village of Snagost, the TDF elements eventually made their way down the Snagost-Liubimovka road clearing the remaining 2 entrenchments and entered Obukhovka to the south by nightfall.
Another event that occurred was the movement of 2nd battalion, with their assigned area of responsibility being around the village of Kremyanoe they sent an IMV platoon north to secure the entrance of the village but on their way they were spotted by a Russian UAV likely from “Anvar” and an Iskander was sent on them, the damage was not severe with only 1 IMV being immobilized but the unit had to withdraw only securing the entrance at night.
The 225th sent an 8 vehicle platoon onto the gas station where a firefight ensued, the gas station was not secured and mortar fire could not be used on it as to not damage the antennas, both sides retained a force in the area and the fighting only continued at night when a group of GUR special operators (dragon’s group) mounted on senator MRAPs arrived and assaulted the gas station. This time the situation went a lot worse for the Russians and we are pretty certain that it was captured.
The Ukrainian progress fell short of operational goals during this day, these setbacks were due to several reasons, the Ukrainian 2nd and 4th battalion were meant to be more involved securing positions 5-10kms north of the now established Olgovka-Kremyaone line but the 4th airmobile battalion was immobilized on day 1 so it could not partake in operations this day and 2nd battalion was caught up on other tasks(evacuations and supporting actions) generally missing one day doesn’t mean much in an operational context but the Russian defense was just forming on that sector and it was allowed the time to establish itself.
The 2nd reason for the setbacks was the unexpected presence of Russian units in the Kremyanoe-Olgovka line which prevented smaller units from moving across the river and allowed Russian air reconnaissance to move freely over the Ukrainian columns which were not protected by their Signal jammers at that range from their starting positions and only had their IED32 jammers.
Thoughts and Comments
The Ukrainian operations at this sector at this time, despite being based on a good plan failed to achieve all their objectives. The Ukrainian 225th battalion managed to secure the entirety of their objectives during this day, possibly even including the radio tower at the gas station but they had no one on their flank, we’ve discussed why the 4th battalion could not be used in that sector but my question is why wasn’t there some sort of reserve that could take its place, so the operation can continue without significant issues. Of course such hurtles can be experienced in any operation but if 100% of your deployed force is to be engaged in operations then a battalion getting blown up may just crush the operational prospects especially when a battalion is responsible for a large sector like in this operation.
Of course the plan was wonderful with the Ukrainian 3rd Battalion bypassing the Russians in Novoivanovka and moving into the Russian rear, ambushing vehicles and then continuing 10kms deeper securing a major height line, if their forces were supported on their flanks like they were supposed to, then it is likely that Phase 1 could have been completed and Lgov secured.
But as we saw that isn’t what happened due to the reasons mentioned above, Could this have been the deciding factor in the completion of the operation, it could but we don’t know for sure of course.
The fact that the Russians in Olgovka and Kremyanoe were left untouched and their supply lines wide open led to a significant insertion of Russian reserves, which the Ukrainians after cutting the Russian’s supply lines had to deal with for many months, as their attempts to destroy them with Dragon’s Group(Ukrainian SOF Unit) failed.
This day was very important for the Ukrainians and under very strict timeframes, even being a day late had significant consequences.
This is the reality of maneuver warfare, you have to move faster than the enemy and this was the best time for Ukraine to do so, as the Russian intelligence was still “Разбит” and the Russian command barely understood the ground situation.
Fifth Chapter, the capture of the Sudzha outskirts
Overnight in the “Central sector” some developments occurred.
The northern most position of the hedgehog defense ring around Sudzha manned by the 3rd Plt, 1 Coy, 3 Btn, 380 Rgt was struck very heavily by FPVs from the 3rd SSO regiment as well as drone dropped mines and artillery fire, many pillboxes were blown away and communications tower were downed which is most likely the reason they did not withdraw from their position. The exact amount of casualties is unknown as there haven’t been any POW interviews from the units involved in its capture, but we say they were severe.
The position on the hedgehog manned by the “combined arms reserve” Plt of the 17th Btn withdrew from their entrenchment after likely receiving some sort of order from higher up. They took up positions in a farm just nearby which was used as a local base in the past and had rations and supplies, this unit was the best equipped and most organized in the region as they did not yet suffer serious casualties.
North of kurilovka, a Russian FSB post and a unit from 3rd battalion 380th regiment abandoned their positions and tried to retreat across the Psel. Their adventure across the marshes took multiple days in which they were getting actively engaged by UAV units of the 61st Brigade.
The Russian 2nd echelon had completely collapsed before tactical Ukrainian units had even approached it.
Inside Goncharoka, the Russian remnants from “Krest” began to wear civilian clothing and hide inside civilian buildings to avoid capture, while an FSB unit which was sheltering inside the farm storage sector of the town after abandoning their position, was destroyed overnight by Ukrainian bomber UAVs.
The event which we have little information about is the abandonment of a Russian T80BVM on the entrance of the town, we assume it could have operated in an armored section of 2 tanks as was quite common in Sudzha in these first 3 days and then got abandoned by its crew overnight for some reason, they could have feared drone attacks as Ukrainian night bombers were very active throughout the night.
In the now collapsed 1st echelon some interesting events occurred with an evading Russian grouping. The unit as we’ve discussed before was in the trenches in between PP45 and Oleshnya and then withdrew after a 6-hour firefight, during the withdrawal the last Russian squad carrying their wounded sergeant got left behind and then accidently took a wrong turn, essentially moving along the border.
The main part of the unit reached Gogolevka in the morning of august 7th as they hoped to do, they saw a man talking to them in Russian, they assumed it was friendly they said that 1st Plt 2nd Coy had arrived and requested orders, the man with the blue armbands went off to report to someone else, soon he came back and lead them to a plantation from where shouting ensued to lay down their arms, the Russians confused stood still. Suddenly a UAF soldier fired a warning shot on the ground, at that moment a Russian soldier made the fateful decision of returning fire, immediately Ukrainian machine gun fire mowed down what remained of the platoon, with only 3 men out of the 12 in the group managing to survive by jumping into a bush from where they were shouted to surrender which they did.
In this situation the man in the blue armband being a Ukrainian from the 1st battalion of the 80th Air assault brigade believed that the Russian group had come to surrender while the Russians believed they were talking to their fellow comrades.
Ukrainian columns in the early morning started forming in order to get back to operations. In the village of Sverdlikovo, many units started rolling in despite the enemy still having a presence in the village center. Signals troops helped refit antennas and abandoned communications equipment, medical units mounted on VABs setup their base and Ukrainian task forces utilizing forces from the 33rd Btn, Shkval Btn(5 Bde) and Bravo team(130 Coy) were forming up, during their regrouping, Russian lancets suddenly appeared in the sky, targeting 4 vehicles, the damage is unclear but we assume it was limited. Further south the 99th battalion gathered most of its strength in Oleshnya and prepared to push towards the village of Rubanshina. The 1st Btn of the 80th Bde stationed in and around Gogoglevka was to clear the remaining Russian strongholds in the 1st echelon, while 2nd battalion of the 80th Bde stationed in a forest near Melovoi was to storm Goncharovka.
From Sverdlikovo a large column hit the road spearhead by Ukrainian Marder IFVs, followed by personnel of the 130th recon battalion and the shkval battalion of the 5th assault brigade, the unit aimed to break through the 2nd echelon at this date.
To the south tanks attached to 2nd Btn moved from Gogolevka into PP45 and started engaging the buildings in which the Russians were hiding in, these tank runs happened for multiple hours with little rest.
A platoon from 2nd Btn which was sheltering north of PP45 through the night tried to capture the last standing positions of 1st Coy 17 Btn, initiating a heavy firefight.
The convoys from the 99th and 2nd Btn also hit the roads and moved towards their objectives.
The northern grouping moved into the outskirts of the Zaoleshenka district bypassing the AT ditch through the main road while suppressing the Russian position in the northern roundabout with 30mm fire from their marder IFVs.
2 platoons from the company moved into the actual tunnel system with relative ease as most of the surface defenses were destroyed, while the 3rd platoon followed by elements from B coy bypassed the defensive system towards the north-west, stopping at a section of the road which had a number of defensive embankments for vehicles created by the Russians, from there they provided fire support.
On the other side of the road Ukrainian having taking a right turn ended up on the rear of the abandoned stronghold near Rubanshina which was cleared by elements of Bravo team and Shkval.
A platoon from Shkval setup a flank securing movement right in front of the roundabout through which they entered the AO.
To the south a reduced platoon of the 80th’s recon company mounted on HMMWVs entered the farming storage sector in Goncharovka supported by a tank, which they cleared after some time.
2nd Battalion moved past the AT ditch made possible by the reconnaissance company’s efforts the previous day and entered Goncharoka from the south-east near the hospital from where they moved through the different streets cutting off any strugglers of the 380th Regiment’s “Krest” only a number of them managed to hide in civilian homes while the rest were either captured or killed during the Ukrainian movement.
Inside Sudzha, chaos had taken over in the Russian leadership. The FSB town office led by lieutenant colonel Krasnichikh had already fled, leaving behind all sorts of files and documents. Additionally the Russian ministry of affairs with the police completely abandoned the town leaving behind all their files and equipment such as their ballistic helmets and shields. Other buildings were abandoned as well including the draft commiserate commanded by “Yo. Voronchov, the only functional operational command post that remained was in the eastern district and they still could barely communicate with their troops.
As a final note all the buildings abandoned were fortified with anti drone defenses, sandbags, nets etc. making them prime shelter for any Russian strugglers trying to survive.
Meanwhile the 99th battalion made it past Gogolevka from where they spotted an enemy unit in a little woodwork on the western most edge of Rubanshina, that enemy was one of the groupings which abandoned the 17th battalion’s HQ, the sergeant and his 4 soldiers had made it to Rubanshina but as fortune came to be they were eliminated by the Ukrainian tanks.
The Ukrainian company supported by the tanks moved through the fields towards the woodwork to confirm the clearing, while the 2nd company attached to the group moved through the main route straight into the village, entering the northern most street, the gunners on the kozak MRAPs spotted a Russian duo moving down the road, immediately he engaged the grouping dropping one instantly but the other managed to escape.
We assume this Russian duo was guarding the reserve command post of the 17th battalion and they were caught halfway through their escape by the 99th battalion.
The northern position on the roundabout fell to unknown circumstances or losses.
Further south, Ukrainian units from Shkval and the 130th entered Sudzha and moved along the R200 where they eventually slept at night. From the north with the fall of the Russian stronghold the units on the embankment also shifted south into Sudzha.
The big news of the day was the capture of PP45, after being encircled for barely 24 hours, the post’s defenses under immense fire from artillery, drones, FPVs, MT12s, tanks, machine guns and every other weapon system you can imagine, started to crumble, first by the surrender of the company commander of 2nd company lieutenant Tunin where they flew 3 white flags made by their undershirts, with it came the surrender of 40 men from 2nd platoon 2nd company and Unit 2391 of the Russian FSB border service.
Soon after all the smaller groupings surrendered as well to the troops of 1st battalion 80th Air assault brigade. In total 76 prisoners were taken and escorts from 1st battalion had to be used in order to transport them back to the POW camps around Sumy, this of course limited the operation 1st battalion could conduct for the rest of the day.
The 1st battalion didn’t achieve as much success in their other operations as their their platoon attempting to secure the last stronghold of 1st company 17 btn, failed after a long firefight and their assaulting element had to withdraw.
The 2nd battalion of the 80th air assault brigade continued their cleanup inside Goncharovka throughout the rest of the day where they settled up for the night, inside abandoned houses and backyards.
In Rubanshina, the 99th had a situation in their hands as they could not approach the Russian unit in the farm, there was only one approach they could use due to the AT Ditches and it was locked on by the Russian unit.
The Russian also had UAV support(We believe there was an Akhmat UAV unit with which the Russian platoon rendezvoused with, but we can’t prove that). Already their Kozak MRAPs had been targeted by lancet drones.
A platoon from the 33rd Btn arrived to reinforce 99th battalion so they decided to attempt to approach the position under the cover of heavy armor(Tanks and Marders) but when they tried to move onto them, Lancets targeted their tank forcing them to pull back.
As dusk approached, assault groups from the 1st battalion, 80th air assault brigade arrived to assist with the clearing. In total three 6-man groups arrived in their MRAPs or a half-platoon, this unit was about to go against a full and possibly reinforced Russian platoon in this farm. They dismounted from their vehicles and moved across the river from Goncharoka through the bridge.
This direction was unmonitored by the Russian UAVs as it was not considered a threat.
The Ukrainian infantry moving behind the foliage at dusk wasn’t seen by the Russian infantry and very suddenly their forward elements were served a volley of fire and grenades, much of the Russian force managed to run away mainly due to it being dusk but nonetheless the position had been cleared.
Ukrainian operational units from this point on decided to stop for the night and let their troops rest.
Thoughts and Comments
Now as these sweet angels rest, let’s discuss the operational picture.
As I think is clear to the reader, this day was a little slower in this sector, the Ukrainians managed to enter some settlements.
We need to take into account the fact that during this day there was quite a bit of POW processing which justifies the slowdown(to some units more than others)
Was this a flaw to the operational plans? Maybe, they could have had a reserve specifically for tasks such as POW processing but not having them is not uncommon in other plans which resulted in successful operations(for example, Desert Storm) and to be fair they probably weren’t expecting such mass-surrenders.
Another factor was the amount of fortified positions which had to be cleared due to their tactically important locations(Streets, roundabouts etc.). We saw how an unfortified farm delayed operations for 6 hours and caused an immense amount of head scratching in the ranks of the 99th btn.
This is a prime example of how a small infantry force can stop or delay a large maneuver force.
A lot of people believe that their big shiny tanks can smash through any infantry force but that only applies if said infantry force is in the middle of a field as even if there are no prepared fortifications present, anything can be turned into a strong defensive position whether that is a bridge, a school, a ditch, a farm or even a series of holes dug in 20 minutes by a platoon of grunts. We see this constantly in this war when some 5 tree wide hedgerows with no cover are turned into unbreakable fortresses.
When suddenly our battalion advance in open terrain is smashed by 20 flip floppers and a dream in a wheat hut, we tend to overthink the situation, believing we need an even larger force consisting of 12 armored battalions and an aviation brigade, when in reality all we need is a guy in a poncho and a leaf blower. Obviously this is a satirical example but I think what I’m saying is clear, Alexander the great won a siege of an unbreakable fortress in 2 days by simply sending 50 dudes unarmed to climb a mountain.
In this situation though despite the slow advance the Ukrainians didn’t get stuck in any of these positions so their advance could continue faster than ever(theoretically) but the Russians are sending reinforcements to this sector, so they need to be quick if they want to catch up with the 82nd and then reach Lgov.
Still though the Ukrainians have the tactical upper hand as they have secured most of the heights around Sudzha and all tactical echelons have now been breached allowing an exploitation to happen deeper.
Another important mention is the fact that the Ukrainians didn’t suffer a serious defeat which would cost them multiple days like the Airmobile battalion(82 Bde) did in Novoivanovka.
Chapter 5.5, The Southern Flank
In the southern most part of the fighting front, the situation continued to develop throughout August 7th. The Russian units encircled in Gornal were destroyed, what happened exactly is unknown but there were likely surrenders involved.
In Guevo the 2 platoon strongpoints were cleanly abandoned, leaving behind every single piece of equipment including their food cans which remained nicely stacked in their tunnels and their rifles which were left neatly on their storage stands.
It’s unclear why they left in such a rush but we assume their positions were being approached by Ukrainian elements of the 101st Battalion which forced their officers, the commander of 1st platoon junior lieutenant Gorkaev and their company commander senior lieutenant Kuzmenkov which was on position to take drastic action.
The Russian OP33 positioned south of Guevo and the Psel river in the ruins of a steam mill was destroyed by Ukrainian GRIM FPVs at an unknown time.
To the north the 100th battalion entered the operation, reaching and securing the village of Kurilovka, the details are unknown.
There was police post manned by FSB border guards near the border to which, we don’t know what happened, obviously the position was neutralized but we don’t when or how that happened.
DAY 3
Sixth Chapter, The Krepna Crossings and the Dramatic Northern Raid
In the west, in the 82nd brigade’s HQ there were debating on how the 225th battalion should continue, as the 4th Battalion had not caught up with them due to their Immobilization on Day 1. The 225th Battalion was simply supposed to act as a blocking element to make sure the Battalion from the VKS regiment in Korenevo couldn’t cut off the elements bypassing it, but now not only did it maintain its original task but it also has to take part in offensive operations against numerically superior forces to a flank which was supposed to have been covered. They were supposed to be the sideshow, but instead they left all the other battalions kicking dust 10s of Kms behind, goes a lot to show the professional soldiers and officers of the battalion.
With the brigade’s command approval they decided to sent some elements to the north to isolate the village of Olgovka in order to prevent its further reinforcement until 4th battalion can return and complete their task.
Already they were able to get 2 companies into the village(1 Btn 3 Coy, 200 Bde ? Btn 3 Coy) in about 48 hours.
The Ukrainian logistics were working hard trying to get another set of battalion vehicles to the rear camp of 4th battalion, which they would do only after 48 hours in the evening of Day3(August 8th).
In Olgovka M109 batteries had been pounding the village relentlessly all morning making the situation look hopeless for the defenders, all Russian reinforcements riding in felt like they were moving into a death trap trying to delay an inevitable collapse, hiding in houses among civilians trying to survive the hot shells of death coming from above, not having any communications with even the troops around them.
The Russians had no communications in the village because of the Ukrainian jammers, due to that the 2 company commands moved into the same basement to try to organize a defense. Generally the Russians were operating in small groups inside the village mainly because they were dropped off like that from pickup trucks in 2-5 man groups, they were given some general instructions on where to head, and they would try to follow them. By day 3 the situation became a little more organized and certain positions were established mainly around the center of the village so that they could more easily communicate through runners but still there were many such small groups around which had no yet made contact with their commanders.
The 225th began the operation later in the day in the afternoon delayed by discussions in the brigade for how the battalion should proceed and likely by resupplies.
The unit moved in 2 groups, one in the west which moved through a small river path right onto the main bridge around the Krepna river in Olgovka. While in the east the 2nd group moved around the perimeter of the Olgovskaya Roshcha forest bypassing the Akhmat HQ towards the Olgovka-Kremyanoe route, with them was an engineering section with an AVLB34 with which they hoped to cross the Reka Krepna into Durovka.
On a chokepoint between a reservoir and a small river on the Novoivanovka-Kremyanoe route a small section from 2nd battalion took up a defensive an observatory position to prevent any Russian mobile groups to enter the UA rear.
The western group reached Vetreno leaving behind only a section to guard the bridge entrance in Olgovka, at some point Russian groupings engaged the Ukrainian garrison leading to many sporadic firefights all the way to nightfall.
in the east the group setup the pontoon bridge and managed to enter the southern part of Durovka where they took up defensive positions, with them also was a UAV team from the “Black Swans” attached to the battalion.
The knowledge of the pontoon was only later revealed to the Russians through their air recon, but for now they remained unaware that such a crossing was done.
On Snagost Ukrainian mobile TDF groupings cleared the abandoned Russian positions on the Snagost-Liubimivka route but no real fighting happened, some sources mainly originated from Rybar made the claim that the Ukrainians assaulted the village during this date but we can’t find anything on that through our sources.
The Ukrainians were being faced with a new problem, the Russians have been able over the last 24 hours to reinforce their forces significantly with forces from the Kharkiv grouping, some were diverted to the rear around Kursk before the operation allowing them to be moved rather quickly to the front, but most simply trucked from Belgorod, which was unexpected from the light infantry formations present there.
Overnight the Ukrainians sent “night hunters” with thermal UAVs deep into the Russian rear as there were no EW counter measures to stop their advanced air recon systems, those reconnaissance troops hunted down Russian reserves maneuvering around the streets and guided HIMARS strikes onto them which were only just approved for use in Kursk. They managed to destroy the 1st company of the 2nd Btn 22 Rgt entirely through a concentrated barrage. That had an effect on the rest of the 22nd Rgt’s movements as many of the companies didn’t reach their expected positions that night as they feared they could become the next prey.
The Russian reserves were most apparent in the sector of the 3rd Btn 82 Bde where individual platoons from 3 different bde’s/rgt’s were forming up mainly in and around the villages, the Ukrainians still had the upper hand in terms of men and equipment so they wanted to try to do something more than waste an entire day on clearing a single village while allowing the Russian to bring in more reserves.
The Ukrainians already had a force far beyond their FLOT35 and they hoped to use it in their favor, the plan was for a Ukrainian CTG36 with armor and infantry to bypass Malaya Loknya and make it onto the Russian MSR37 from where they would ravage through their rear blocking all logistics for a day to the current forces deployed in the Malaya Loknya/Pogrebki agglomeration, destroying any reserves maneuvering on trucks through said road and then damage or destroy exposed positions with their superior firepower. As mentioned before they had a force already deployed just 5kms to the heights on the west from where they could be supported through active fire of longer range systems, air reconnaissance and signals, the 2 forces would then rendezvous around the road south east of Kanchuk, with the CTG avoiding moving through the Russian village of Kromskie Buki as a Russian presence was known in there.
In the early morning while the main Russian force was still asleep the Ukrainian columns formed up under the cover of the night, the company from 2nd battalion was to remain in Viktorovka while 1st company from 3rd battalion reinforced by a couple trucks and an armored platoon from the 17th tank brigade moved towards Malaya Loknya.
The Ukrainian group had managed to slip past the Russians possibly with the assistance of some suppressive fire by their armored vehicles and were now on their MSR with basically nothing to stop them for KMs, still if they wanted to be a real threat they had to further advance north on their roughly 25-30 vehicles.
Whilst advancing past Pogrebki they saw a pickup with Russian soldiers on top of it, they engaged it first with tank fire and then with 0.50 fire disabling the vehicle, dozens of Russian KIAs were suffered while 2 Russians survived and were taken prisoner, being put in the back of a UA truck.
The Russians were from the 2nd company 1st battalion 30th Regiment and they were trying to make it to the rear after leaving their position in Loknya via car, the rest of their unit attempted to escape on foot, their story will be discussed later in the text.
The Company Tactical Group(CTG) advanced a further 5kms north and instead of taking a left and continuing on the highway they moved towards the exit to Ivnitsa in order to strike the Russian platoon positioned in it, tanks started the engagement while the infantry dismounted from their vehicles and even joined the firefight, the Russians too tried to fight back with machine their guns. The firefight lasted for a while but it didn’t have a decisive result, the Ukrainians managed to advance to just a couple 100 meters from the Russian positions but in the end the Ukrainians disengaged with likely no casualties being suffered by either side, although several houses in the village had suffered damage.
Meanwhile in the rear the last Russian company from 3rd battalion 810th brigade remaining in Lgov had gotten a 20 minute warning to move onto their trucks and advance south after digging fortifications since August 5th(Day -1).
The Russian 810th brigade had a number of battalions which redeployed to Kursk with only 2 of them already being there when the offensive began, the 810th brigade began redeploying from Kherson to Pokrovsk a couple days before the Ukrainian offensive only sending 3rd battalion on kamaz trucks to ride to Kursk leaving their BTRs in Pokrovsk, there they met up with 1st battalion which had been there since the cancelled offensive into Sumy oblast on June. After arriving on August 5th both battalions began digging fortifications around Lgov, on the 7th both of these battalions were deployed to the front lines a process that lasted until the 8th(Day 3), the rest of the battalions in Pokrovsk and the BTRs began their movements soon after.
Now the last company of 3rd battalion began their movement south through the main MSR. It is likely that the movement began before the engagement at Ivnitsa which is when the Russian command was notified about the Ukrainian raid and even after the Russian command was notified the information did not travel down properly to those who should have had it, nonetheless the situation led to the following events.
The Ukrainian convoy continued up the highway towards Kromskie bukie, by that point the road was surrounded by hedgerows and visibility was limited. The Russian company had also entered that area and hoped to continue moving south but suddenly, whilst taking a turn, a Ukrainian tank appeared, instead of slamming the breaks the Russian driver slammed the gas rushing by the side of the Ukrainian tank into the heart of the Ukrainian convoy, the Russians began firing away from the back of the truck onto the tank with their machine guns but it didn’t do much as the Ukrainian armored vehicles began to engage with their 0.50s onto the Russian trucks, the tank also fired its shot destroying a Russian truck with their personnel. Already 30 KIAs were suffered with a remaining 15 Russians who managed to get off the trucks trying to escape most were destroyed whilst a small number below 5 were taken as POWs the rest of the company with their major rushed away as this event was occurring,
In just a couple of seconds the entire 1st platoon of the company acting as the forward party was wiped, the rest of the company managed to escape with unknown casualties although it is safe to assume that they probably did suffer some light casualties.
Despite their close escape the Ukrainian CTG followed closely behind, part of the Russian force rushed across a field into a forest abandoning their vehicles trying to hide as fast as possible from the incoming Ukrainians while the rest of the unit moved into the hamlet of Anastas’yevka mounted, moving through the Malaya Loknya river some Russians had to abandoned their trucks and move on foot, leading to the unit being dispersed.
The Ukrainians moved into the field with their vehicles likely identifying these positions due to friendly air recon and then soon after the pounding began.
The Russians in the forest were being engaged by the Ukrainian T64BVs and 0.50 fire, Ukrainian dismounts even entered the forest and a fire fight ensued with the evading Russians, after just an hour the Russians were eliminated in the forest, there was nothing they could really do against the force that was unleashed on them, the decision to rush into the forest was a terrible one as even though theoretically it would provide them with concealment the cover was very limited and in such a large group they could easily be identified by the thermals on the T64BV.
Meanwhile the other group that retreated into Anastas’yevka had better luck as the Ukrainian armor could not pass the marshy terrain on the Malaya Loknya river, the Ukrainian tank fire was still ensuing onto the Russians though, they even managed to destroy one of the abandoned trucks outside the Russian positions, the concrete structures in the village gave the Russians sufficient cover and concealment from thermals and they were able to hold onto their position, the Ukrainian infantry did engage closely as well but it did not wish to move and clear the hamlet without their armor, artillery was also not an option as they did not enjoy communications at their current position.
As nightfall approached they decided to abandon the complete destruction of the enemy force and instead move to make contact with their friendly forces to the west.
As for the survivors of the Marine company they likely patrolled back to Kromskie Buki at night if they even knew where they were.
The Ukrainian CTG as they approached their friendly forces they were able to make contact with the expected channels and pass through back into friendly territory after a day of operations behind enemy lines, without proper communications, no support and with practically no casualties, just a quick 30kms stroll through the enemy’s MSR causing the complete disturbance of the enemy logistics for 24 hours.
The Ukrainians signals during this raid were limited, of course they had no internet to work with nor any satellite communications through Starlink instead they relied on certain relays placed around on the heights to the west and at certain points they absolutely did not enjoy communications especially at lower heights and around forested sectors, of course signal troops were attached to the CTG and attempts at radio communications were attempted throughout their journey by placing relays on en-heightened places.
Meanwhile the mass of the 3rd btn 82 Bde had to remain on position for the day as they were to support the raid but nonetheless they could not advance without support on their flanks from the 4th airmobile battalion which was not going to operate on this day.
The fact they were not to continue maneuvering means that they had to protect their current position, overnight squad sized guards were dis-attached from the companies and sent to hold positions towards the Russians in Sheptuhovka.
In the morning the units were further split apart as they sent more flank guards towards Sheptuhovka, Pogrebki and Zhuravli, some platoon sized units were retained, 2 of which moved north towards Kanchuk establishing new position further north in order to make contact with the raiding group when it was to arrive. Their signals troops setup relays to extend their communications range, resupplies occurred and 2 groups of Russia strugglers from Novoivanovka were captured including the deputy commander of the 31st Battalion.
In general we can see a clear consolidation, the Ukrainians to be clear did not want to stop the operational push but a tactical pause on this axis was necessary to allow the other flanks to catch up, for that the 3rd battalion needed to establish its position.
It’s also important to say that combat did occur with numerous firing missions being conducted by Ukrainian challenger II tanks as well as the usual hiding from the VKS, as now they had realized the Ukrainians were in that area and they were sending many FABs to them. In fact a serious incident happened the night of Aug 8th in Novoivanovka where a Russian glide bomb struck a company base of the 103rd TDF brigade causing 12 to die instantly and 10s more to suffer injuries, to say the least those bombs were a serious threat.
Fighting also happened near Viktarovka where the company from 2nd battalion was holding, we will discuss these events with the story of the Russian unit that was engaged there.
On August 6th there were 2 main positions south of Malaya Loknya, one was east of Nikolski where a trench system was held by a platoon from 9th regiment and the other position was east of Loknya where a platoon from 2nd Coy, 1 Btn, 30 Rgt was positioned.
On august 6th both positions were abandoned, the platoon from 9th regiment managed to reach their new positions at Malaya Loknya by nightfall, while at the position near Loknya, a car arrived and according to the source the senior sergeant most likely the platoon commander ordered “17 of them” on the car, now take of that what you will but I believe it is likely they didn’t manage to fit 17 people on that car. The car then moved through Malaya Loknya and into Pogrebki where they stayed waiting for new orders. On the morning of August 8th they were ordered to move back to Lgov, while on their ride they were struck by 0.50 fire and suffered many deaths by the Ukrainian raiding convoy, the rest were taken POWs.
As for the rest of the platoon they had to tighten their boots as they had to march their way towards Malaya Loknya but we don’t believe they began their march on the 6th as it wouldn’t match our chronology.
Instead we believe the remaining platoon began moving from their position on the 7th, clearing the first 3KMs before finding the friendly trenches near Nikolski and settling there. Their march beginning again on the morning of the 8th and they continued moving parallel to the railway bank. As they approached Malaya Loknya, a Ukrainian observation post spotted them, relaying their movement to command, soon after mortar fire began raining down on them, forcing them into the woods of the railway bank. The Ukrainians simultaneously sent out a light infantry group to cross the bridge at Malaya Loknya and intercept the Russian force, the grouping’s size is unknown.
The Russian unit kept moving forward managing to escape the barrage and race to the next tree line, continuing their evasion towards friendly positions in Malaya Loknya, which they would achieve by the end of the day. A grouping from the unit though did not share the same fate as the rest of the platoon, they were stuck under the mortar fire not being able to move, instead huddling up under trees and craters trying to survive, according to one account the shelling lasted up to 4 hours with many already having bled out from their wounds, a Russian soldier was hectically trying to make contact with their friendlies on the radio but receiving no response, suddenly from the area where their friendlies fled towards they heard screams telling them to surrender with their spirit completely crushed the remaining Russian soldiers gave in and surrendered to the UAF.
Thoughts and Comments
In this sector a very interesting operation was conducted and I believe it warrants more discussion.
The Ukrainians sent a CTG up the Russian MSR, in an attempt to dislodge the Russian units from the Malaya Loknya-Pogrebki Agglomeration. It is in fact a very interesting idea and we saw it play in practice, of course I personally find such movements great but those forces will not just all magically die if they don’t receive new supplies for 24 hours but if the raid is done in coordination with an assault onto the agglomeration then it is much more likely to happen, I should mention that in that case their elimination won’t be magical.
It isn’t exactly cleared what the Ukrainians did around Viktorovka based from our information it is possible that they assaulted certain Russian positions in Malaya Loknya and Nikolaevka, I should mention again that I don’t have any such information but is a possibility.
The “raid” itself could have been in the original plan but then adapted into a raid to fit their current situation because advancing there and maintaining a position that far away from any friendly forces may not have worked out, similarly the 3rd battalion in the heights also barely advanced and did not try to continue the exploitation.
It was probably one of their better moves to conduct that riad but it was then not properly exploited by an attempt to clear Malaya Loknya in my opinion at least.
Meanwhile in Krepna The Ukrainian 225th conducted a crossing and cut off the Russian 1st Naval Infantry battalion. That I believe was an amazing decision taken by the command of the 82nd Brigade to send a limited force to maintain the Russians in the Olgovka-Kremyanoe Agglomeration and secure a bridgehead over the Krepna that can be used later.
Seventh Chapter, The 80th Brigade’s exploitation north
Further east in the morning, a new battalion was introduced into the operation, it being the 3rd Air Assault battalion which moved up the R200 in their armored vehicles and moved into the village of Kozachnaya Loknya which was positioned on a tactical height overlooking Sudzha.
From there they hoped to begin exploiting to the north towards the Shagorovo settlement and the E38 road.
At this point the Ukrainian 3rd battalion was in a good place to begin its exploitation, they were facing a gap between the Russian formations of the last echelon, to the east of the gap being the 4th battalion of the Russian VKS regiment with the 2nd company of the battalion being dispersed due to a frantic retreat from Kubatkin around Cherkasskoye Porochnoe and the villages leading up to it. 1st company was holding in the village of Martynovka with them there were workshops for ground and air vehicles of the 1431 Rgt while there were also officers from the 1434 Rgt positioned with the 4th battalion HQ’s in the north of the village.
To the west there are the abandoned positions of the 30th and 9th regiment as we just discussed.
The Ukrainians continued their advance soon after with a platoon detaching from one of the companies in order to go and clear the Loknya position while the rest of the position moved down the main road and rapidly entered an engagement with a Russian squad positioned in a building on the railway which with the help of some rocket launchers was quickly neutralized.
It’s important to mention that this company did not have armored support so they had to use mortars and rocket launchers for their explosive mass.
The Company after destroying the Russian squad moved through the railway bank and straight into the village Yuzhnyi which they bypassed and continued through the field for 3kms before passing through a tree line which acted as their line of departure into their AO after an additional kilometer and a half they got on a dirt road, and continued moving on that.
The Ukrainian reduced company then split up and its different sections moved on their pre-assigned positions securing every one of the possible flanks solidifying their hold on the height in between Cherkasskoe Porochnoe and Malaya Loknya, although the advance did not come without its losses during the advance of one of the squads a Russian fixed wing ISR UAV observed them forcing them to hide in the woods nearby where they got engaged by FPVs from unit Aida positioned nearby, in the end they lost one of their MRAPs meanwhile on the road an assumed civilian truck was burning right in front of them due to unknown circumstances.
With the capture of the heights in between Malaya Loknya and Cherkasskoe Porochnoe the rest of 3rd battalion could attempt to assault Cherkasskoe Porochnoe but first they had to reach it.
Meanwhile while the other company advanced north of Yuzhnyi another company was preparing to storm Cherkasskoe Porochnoe, for that a platoon from the Ukrainian SSO had to clear a path into the village and in order to do that they had to pass through 4 different settlements.
First in their HMMWVs the Ukrainian SSO moved through Kubatkin passing by the railway where an eliminated Russian squad was positioned after the building it was settling in was blown apart by a UAV dropped mine.
Approaching the entrance of Ivashkovskiy they were struck by light fire in a forested sector, they responded with 0.50 fire suppressing the ambush and then eliminated it with a couple carl Gustav HE rockets. Moving further they got into the village of Pravda which they crossed through without any resistance.
O entrance of Cherkasskoe Porochnoe the Ukrainian SSO platoon was engaged by the 1st and 3rd buildings on their left side which they assaulted with their special operators, using rifles, grenade launchers and grenades, the 1st one was cleared while the 3rd one got completely engulfed in flames likely from ammunition that exploded.
The Ukrainian SSO had just secured a small foothold into the village but still there was a long way to go.
The SSO Platoon got off the road and moved into the saltpeter storage facility which they cleared soon after, using their HMMWVs to open the doors of the storage units, the storage units were empty but they were still important to secure.
The Ukrainian SSO platoon after clearing the southern storage site moved onto the northern one. Meanwhile the company from the 80th air assault brigade sent one of its platoons with the support of a T80BV to do a reconnaissance in force up the central Cherkasskoe Porochnoe road. The platoon led by a tank in the vanguard, followed by a Bushmaster MRAP and then 2 Kozak MRAPs all covered in anti drone cages, advanced up the road, first moving through the cleared entrance and then entering the next section of the village, from there the vehicles started moving slower with much of the platoon’s infantry being dismounted and following the vehicles in high alert often deploying suppressive fire of their own, all the vehicles were deploying their own fires including the lead tank trying to suppress their enemies before advancing.
While the convoy was advancing overhead a Russian orlan was observing and AIDA, an akhmat special operations unit operating north of the village was tasked with sending a Lancet loitering munition on it.
The lancet hit the Ukrainian T80BV right after it got through the crossroads and despite the anti-drone cage it was damaged irreversibly on top of the turret but the crew managed to drive the tank off-road and get out mounting in the Bushmaster despite being heavily concussed, as for the tank its ammunition rack ignited a minute or so after causing an explosion.
The Ukrainian infantry platoon managed to ride off in time and continue the advance on their own, as they moved they went past a Russian squad which had been devastated by the tank fire it was receiving just a couple minutes ago, the machine gun fire continued and they could not pose much of a threat to the Ukrainian platoon, at the end they were finished off by grenades and the convoy continued its movement through the road.
Trainian platoon kept on the road and continued moving 700 meters down they reached the next Russian position which was already suppressed and the infantry began moving on it, meanwhile a Russian lancet on the air targeted the Bushmaster positioned on the road barely missing but damaging it, enough for its engine oils to catch on fire, the vehicle moved on the field next to the building where the Russian squad was, behind it the grassy fields catching on fire, the Russian tank crew for the second time getting struck by a lancet, the driver from the nearby Kozak dropping suppressive fire on the building got out to try to help them, the camo scrims on the anti drone cage of the Bushmaster soon also caught on fire and the bushmaster soon became a fiery inferno, its unclear what happened with the bushmaster’s troops but it’s unlikely there were deaths as they had time to get out. Soon after another Lancet whizzed by targeting the kozak-2 next to the bushmaster but missing slightly the Lancet exploding next to the gunner’s head on the ground, the gunner heavily concussed turned the turret 180 degrees before opening the co-drivers door and getting out towards their friendly troops, with the gunner’s shield protecting him from at least most of the shrapnel, what happened to the gunner afterwards is unknown.
The Ukrainians soon after got the rest of the company in the village to try and consolidate, while they sent a T64A based mine clearing vehicle to clear a path to the R200 in preparations for an assault on Martynovka the next day.
After the Ukrainian mine clearing vehicle created the path to the R200 the Ukrainian SSO platoon acting as a DRG38 moved onto the R200 and hid in the woods near Kruglik in order to block the R200 and cause chaos to the Russian intelligence system which had still not managed to recover from the original shock on the 6th of August and was still not able to identify enemy formations or their positions.
Thoughts and Comments
In this sector we saw the 80th Air Assault begin its own exploitation northwards directly covering the 82nd air assault brigade from the east. The exploitation to the north was conducted in good manner and it managed to secure its positions although of course as we know with the power of foresight the exploitation was not continued but that wasn’t because of an enemy presence but because of orders to not continue the exploitation. If they were allowed they would have secured Volokonsk on the 9th of August.
Meanwhile in Cherkasskoye Porochnoe the Ukrainians attempted a more creative way to secure the settlement, using thunder run type tactics to move through the settlement.
The Ukrainian attempt to do a thunder-run style raid into the enemy occupied Cherkasskoye Porochnoe, is an interesting observation and it definitely was one of the reasons the Ukrainians even were able to secure Cherkasskoe Porochnoe because truly even though the operation did not capture the entire village and suffered casualties, it cleared half the village in just a few hours of movement without having to individually clear each house and/or street. This approach to urban warfare was probably the best approach for the village’s capture as the poorly trained Russian conscripts would easily fold in case of enemy tank fire and they would avoid returning fire additionally anti-armor weapons were lacking on the Russian infantry and we saw the operation only faced issues when the Akhmat special operators were involved with their Lancets and in reality there is not much they could do to counter that threat, their quick advance left their operational jammers behind and their vehicles lacked their own IED jammers to possibly guide an FPV off-course. The reality is that unless there are UAV counters on the company level then a maneuver unit can’t really counter an enemy lancet on its own whether that is spoofing devices and shorter range jammers optimized on armored vehicles and/or some mobility to operational level jammers or even simply the ability to deploy jammer sticks like those on Day 1 of the operation, of course that would require extensive SIGINT39 on a pretty low level in order to always know the enemy signals especially in maneuver situations where information is ever-changing and opportunities are taken and exploited in limited amounts of time. In such situations the enemies ability to strike your maneuver forces can destroy everything.
Eighth Chapter, The operations in Sudzha
The operations also continued in the urban center where Ukrainian forces had to slowly clear positions to ensure there are no Russian strugglers left behind.
The Ukrainian armed forces had a significant presence in the town of Sudzha and its outskirts, one consisting of 4 mechanized battalions, a special intelligence company, a motorized reconnaissance company, a separate assault(storm) company and a number of tanks. As the clearing continued for the next couple days an additional mechanized battalion will enter the sector plus 2 battalion sized task forces and a light infantry battalion as well as some territorial defense battalions, SBU units and elements from Khorne and other UAV units.
To say the least Sudzha a town which barely had any Russian soldiers in it, took Ukraine’s main effort while the actual operationally significant exploitation to the north only had but 3 reinforced battalions in it. The Ukrainians had the majority of their forces stuck in a slow moving urban fight for multiple days.
This was probably the biggest tactical blunder the UAF did during the first days of the operation as these forces could have been used way better.
The Ukrainian advances continued in Goncharovka, the 80th brigade’s reconnaissance company moved with the support of a tank down the central road of Goncharovka slowly clearing the area around with their dismounted infantry, while a Ukrainian sub-element of the 80th air assault brigade moved from the hospital to the Sudzhanskiy Leskhov towards a small road leading to central Sudzha.
In the Zhaoleshenky district, the 33rd battalion moved into the suburb from Zhaoleshenka and began clearing the northern most road with the support of an element from Bravo company 130 recon Btn. While Shkval began to enter the district in force and clear some of their previously bypassed positions.
The clearing continued throughout the day with no enemy resistance as there was none, at the same time many stores around the suburbs were destroyed both by Ukrainian soldiers and locals, other than that details about the clearing are limited, the only tactical event that is to be discussed at this time is that the 99th battalion also joined on the clearing of the Zhaoleshenky district.
What can be discussed though is that the Russian intelligence began to be able to see the Ukrainian forces in the town through their own UAVs as the Ukrainians likely felt safer in the town and didn’t take proper concealment, many times groupings were distracted by looting. The Russian intelligence began to make out a basic order of battle for the enemy and understand the force they were dealing with.
As the clearing of the western districts was occurring a new Ukrainian unit was introduced to the fight, this one being a separate assault company from the 80th air assault brigade. The unit crossed from the PP45 breach and moved towards Goncharovka before taking a left turn into the Russian base at the “Farm” where the previous day a serious fight had taken place.
There they stayed to take a break. But there break was short lived as a group of Russian strugglers that had been at the farm the previous day moved back towards it hoping that the UAF had left the position so they can get food.
At the farm five Russian conscripts were captured.
From there the group hoping to reach Martynovka started making their way around Sudzha from the R200 highway.
While the separate assault company was moving the Russians were desperate to hold the eastern district, already they had abandoned all military HQ and civilian government or police from the town center and requested military reinforcements to hold the eastern district which were already on the way but due to Ukrainian remote minelaying of the Ulanok route the reinforcements were delayed.
Having no contact with the local garrison on the perimeter of the town and the reinforcements still not being close, they had to take desperate measures to hold the district. From the military HQ in Sudzha they took around 40 officers to hold the roundabout with most being of a rank ranging from captain to lieutenant colonel, they were loaded onto a truck and sent them on kamaz trucks to the roundabout, after get unloaded they setup a line of mines facing the Ukrainians and waited.
With the first fire exchanges the Russian grouping collapsed into a rout and the officers started fleeing from the roundabout deeper into Sudzha.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian company sent some of its elements to enter Sudzha proper from the west.
The Ukrainians stopped at the roundabout to move the mines on the Russian side of the R200 before continuing to move south into the industrial region from that sector, the Ukrainians from the west did the same before both groups rendezvoused in the industrial region, during the rout a Russian major was captured which shared part of this story. As for the rest of them their fate remains unknown it is likely that they escaped.
The assault company took up positions in this sector and blocked traffic from moving into the eastern district with their FPVs, according to one testimony the Russians were trying to enter until the nightfall, one of the known targets was Russian propagandist Poddubny which got struck by an FPV while driving towards Sudzha to report.
As for the defense of the eastern district, it was quite simply impossible to happen after the Ukrainians ran over the northern part of the district and the reinforcements that came from the 155th Naval Infantry brigade were doomed.
Thoughts and Comments
The operations in Sudzha especially on day 3 and after were incredibly slow.
First of all they took up a ginormous amount of forces in terms of the operation and Sudzha was not even a main objective, it didn’t need to be fully secured for the operation to succeed in its goals but instead we saw a large amount of forces stuck in an urban fight slowly clearing their sectors and at the same time having to secure the local population.
Discussing said control we need to mention the looting that happened by the Ukrainian soldiers and the failure of their officers to control them, if they even attempted to do so. Supermarkets and their products in occupied cities need to be protected by the occupiers, by territorial defense forces, national guard or the SBU instead they were left open for vandalization and robbery, The Ukrainians were supposed to evenly spread those supplies among the populace, that only happened a month+ after when shelters and sorts of control were in place to assist the civilians.
I understand they weren’t staying for long as the operation was just a raid but then why did you occupy the town? To add additional strain to your already limited resources.
Sudzha is in my opinion the largest mistake conducted by the Ukrainians in the operation. The political significance of capturing Sudzha are much smaller than those of successfully making the raid in full or even reaching Phase 1 of it, you don’t need to bring in half your force to secure that small part of the front while “starving” your units to the north which are doing the actual exploitation.
Also I’m not going to argue about the authenticity of the claim of looting in here as it was widely shared even by Ukrainian accounts.
What happened after the first 3 days
The Ukrainian northern exploitation was given a halt order after disputes between the Commander in Chief Oleksandr Sirskiy and the Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyi on how to continue the operation.
Zelenskiy wanted to continue the raid northwards even if the operational goals were not to be met in full, while Oleksandr Sirskiy believed it to be very risky to attempt such an advance, at the end the halt order given to all forward troops on August 9th. The issues were mainly the fact that these forces had uncovered flanks and creeping logistical and communications issues due to their lack of SATCOM and Starlink.
The operational pushes were to continue after much of these issues were resolved.
On the 11th of August the Ukrainians restarted operations to the North after recovering their strength. The 82nd being fully deployed led the northernly push, the 4th battalion attempting to move past Koronevo, 2nd battalion to move north towards Ivanovskoye and 3rd battalion to breach the Kanchuk-Kromskie Buki line. After breaking through they hoped to link up at Rylsk with Ukrainian forces which would launch from Hlukhiv but that part of the operation was never launched.
The 4th battalion managed to reach the railway after a couple days of fighting where it had to stop, 2nd battalion had a similar fate, despite facing less resistance at the start and managing to advance 7kms to the north over the course of 3 days, they had to stop at the railway after a major defeat at the village of Safonovka where they lost 1/3rd of their strength, the village of Zhuravli which they cleared during their advance was recaptured by Russians marines of the 1st battalion and they began doing mechanized raids with their newly arrived BTR82s into the Ukrainian rear of 3rd battalion.
3rd battalion fell flat on the front onto Kanchuk which they entered but Russian marines managed to push them out before they could secure a foothold, they only managed to secure a couple positions in some forests around their AO and didn’t achieve any real advance.
the 82nd brigade had managed to secure a small bridgehead over the olgovskiy river but the Russian first battalion in Olgovka and Kremyaone was still holding there encircled with Russians supply missions managing to break through routinely, after the first Russian counter attacks began in late August they had to abandon the railway and pulled back to vetreno and Durovka in hopes of better logistics.
Similarly Russian infantry garrisons held in Sheptuhovka, Pogrebki and Malaya Loknya despite the Ukrainian efforts to make their positions unsustainable, Sheptuhovka was never cleared while Malaya Loknya was only captured after weeks of encirclement and the deployment of the 95th brigade which shows very well how small forces can hold off larger groupings.
The front had been heavily reinforced by the Russians during the days of passiveness, the entire 810th brigade was basically deployed to the north now with BTRs which they used with great effect on the defense, to the west Korenevo had also been reinforced by a number of Russian battalions and some of the best Russian drone units, while Russian VDV units were arriving further back on their staging posts for a counter offensive.
After the failure of the 2nd Ukrainian attempt to breakthrough on the 11th to the 14th the Ukrainian objectives changed completely from a deep raid to destroy the Russian Kharkiv grouping to an operation to hold ground.
Smaller attempts happened during the month to breakthrough around the perimeter but without success.
As the first month of the operation was up the Russians began their own counter offensive…
Thanks to everyone who read this I want to also thank everyone who made this possible including the much appreciated @Danspiun who helped significantly with the project and was always there I needed his help, of course I shouldn’t forget to mention his 2 amazing translators @vmanulik and @Cezve_340ml who were crucial to the translations of 100s of POW videos. Other than that I received incredible support from @Black_BirdGroup and most especially @J_JHelin. Other important faces for the creation of the project include @abulebube123 + all the other people who reviewed the text and sent back feedback or trusted me with information, there are too many to mention in this short text but if you are reading this, I want you to know that all the help is very appreciated.
During the 7 month journey of this project I reached out to 100s of Ukrainians soldiers which individually gave me testimonies or agreed to be asked questions, without their agreement to release information, this historical data may never have been put out and I deeply appreciate their contributions, I should also give a shout out to the Russian POWs who took interviews and the the Ukrainians that created them and then put them online for everyone to see.
Also as a last mention I want to thank the people who trusted with better tools to do this study whether that is high res satellite imagery or documents.
Public articles used:
https://kyivindependent.com/syrskyi-59th-motorized-brigade/
https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/08/18/russias-double-punch-back-against-ukraines-shock-raid
https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/08/11/ukraines-shock-raid-deep-inside-russia-rages-on
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/12/world/europe/russia-ukraine-kursk-incursion.html
https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/how-ukraine-caught-putins-forces-off-guard-in-kursk-and-why/
https://www.ft.com/content/bc695adf-bd17-4242-b4bc-82235a97edbf
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/ukraine-general-oleksandr-syrskiy-russia-kursk-incursion-32965fb
ORBAT = Order of battle
Plt = Platoon
Btn = Battalion
Rgt = Regiment
FARP = Forward Arm and Refuel Point
UAV = Unmanned Aerial System
EW = Electronic Warfare
ATGM = Anti-tank guided missile
AO = Area of Operations
POW = Prisoner of War
Bde = Brigade
IMV = Infantry Mobility Vehicle
Coy = Company
AGL = Automatic Grenade Launcher
KIA = Killed in Action
WIA = Wounded in Action
HQ = Headquarters
SL = Squad Leader
CP = Command Post
MP = Military Police
AFV = Armored Fighting Vehicle
Co = Commander
NCO = Non-commissioned officer
VDO = Vehicle Drop off
IDF = Indirect fire
MRAP = Mine Protected Ambush Resistant (Vehicle)
CasEvac = Casualty Evacuation
ARV = Armored Recovery Vehicle
APC = Armored Personnel Carrier
ISR = Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance
TDF = Territorial Defense
IED = Improvised Explosive Device
OP = Observation Post
AVLB = Armored Vehicle-Launched Bridge
FLOT = Forward Line Of Troops
CTG = Company Tactical Group
MSR = Main Service Route
DRG = Diversionary-Reconnaissance Group , a Warsaw pact system remains in use with many ex-eastern block countries.
SIGINT = Signals Intelligence
Wow. Just wow. Thank you so much for publishing this!
Fantastic reading, really appreciate the hard work. Thanks!