THE The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk has been extended for a third month until October: what is happening on the ground? Where are Ukrainian advances? The Kursk region, in southwest Russia, bordering Ukraine, has been mired in fighting with kyiv’s troops for more than two months. Ukraine has claimed more than two dozen settlements in the Kursk region since launching its surprise raid on August 6, in the largest cross-border attack on Russian territory since World War II. Instead, Moscow’s forces retook some villages and lands conquered in a Ukrainian raid into Russia. These advances prevented Kyiv from putting pressure on Vladimir Putin at the negotiating table.. In the last days of October, Russian troops have stepped up efforts to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the territory they seized in the Kursk region in western Russia.launching several assaults with armored vehicles.
Military evolution
THE The Kursk region remains one of the main battlegrounds in the ongoing conflict between Russian and Ukrainian forces.. In August, kyiv claimed to control more than 1,250 square kilometers of Russian territory, including 92 settlements. Instead, Apti Alaudinov, head of the Chechen special forces unit Akhmat, which has become one of the main spokesmen for the Russian counteroffensive in the Kursk region, said Monday that about 50 percent of the territory captured had been recovered by Ukraine during the war. raid.
However, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a think tank Based in the United States, after two months of fighting in the Kursk region, Ukraine still controlled most of the previously confiscated territory in Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last Saturday that Moscow had tried to push back Ukrainian positions in Kursk, but that kyiv “resisted”. Among the settlements still under Ukrainian control is Sudzha, a town of about 5,000 residents that is home to a key gas transit hub between Russia and Europe, according to the ISW.
Residents of Kursk
More than 112,000 residents of the Kursk region have had to leave their homes since the incursion began. 12,300 people were housed in temporary sheltersaccording to Russian authorities. At least 308 people, including 11 children, were injured in the attack, according to local authorities. Moscow also accused kyiv of forcibly taking away more than 1,000 Kursk residents during the raid.
Residents of the Kursk region continue to express frustration with Moscow’s lack of intervention months after the incursion began.
Why the offensive at Kursk?
The offensive had two main objectives:
- 1) Force the Kremlin to divert troops from other parts of the front to respond to the attackthereby relieving pressure on Ukrainian forces.
- 2) Capture territory that Moscow will try to recoverpotentially forcing him to come to the negotiating table.
The first objective was not achieved: the Kremlin deployed Russian reserves while intensifying assaults in eastern Ukraine. Instead, kyiv has focused on the second objective as part of its so-called “victory plan” aimed at pushing Russia into peace negotiations.
