Kremlin says offensive halted // Russian bloggers criticize weak defense
▲ Russian President Vladimir Putin (center) chairs a meeting with (from left) Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov, Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu and Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.Photo Sputnik, Kremlin Photo via Ap
Juan Pablo Duch
Correspondent
The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 9, 2024, p. 27
Moscow. On the third day of fighting in the Russian region of Kursk, everything indicates that the Ukrainian troops that crossed the border on August 6 have the mission of going as far as possible and, once their positions are fortified, attract Russian forces from the front in one or more of the nine directions that, sporadically and unsynchronized, are trying to advance into Ukraine, while Russian aviation and artillery are trying to stop the Ukrainian expansion in their territory, until yesterday without success.
The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have stopped the Ukrainian offensive, using S-34 supersonic fighter-bombers, which dropped FAB-500 bombs on the positions of six brigades of the Ukrainian army (on Russian territory), as well as on the neighboring (Ukrainian) regions of Sumy and Kharkiv.
In a statement, it states: During the day, the enemy’s advance was prevented by active actions of the state border protection units, together with border guard troops, reinforcement units and reserves, air strikes, missile and artillery fire. Fire is being used to defeat identified concentrations of Ukrainian army personnel and equipment. Attempts by separate units to enter the territory adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Kursk region are being thwarted..
However, Z-bloggers – all pro-Kremlin in principle, but many of them critical of the military leadership – painted a different picture on social networks, complaining that the Ukrainian army has already occupied about twenty villages in two districts, Sudzha and Korenevo, laying mines at the entrances and building fortifications, as well as using those left behind by the Russian army in the villages. Sudzha, which is an important communications and logistics hub, is home to the Russian natural gas measurement centre, which is to be transported via a pipeline in Ukraine to several European countries.
They also blame the Army General Staff, whose head, Valery Gerasimov, is also the Commander-in-Chief of the special military operationof ignoring warnings that the Ukrainian army was preparing an incursion into Kurskas reported a few days earlier by the Dos Mayores forum (which is part of the network of Telegram channels close to the GRU, the acronym for the military intelligence directorate).
No reinforcements arrive
Others say that the necessary reinforcements are not arriving, which “allows the enemy to keep under control an area that has expanded by 30 kilometers along the Diakonovo-Sudzha highway,” writes the Rybar channel, which broadcasts the opinion of a group of experts from the Ministry of Defense, the first channel to confirm that Ukrainian troops occupied Sudzha.
According to Mikhail Zvinchuk, Rybar’s war correspondent, Fierce fighting is taking place 15 kilometres south of Lgovin the towns surrounding this city, while Yuri Kotenok, in his blog Voenkor, asserts that groups of Ukrainian soldiers are already 30 kilometers from the city of Kurchatov, where the Kursk nuclear power plant is located, but At this point, it is premature to fear that the enemy may occupy this strategic facility; however, the situation is worrying.he emphasizes.
Bargaining currency
Nikolai Mitrokhin, an independent military analyst, believes that Russia is in danger of losing 20-25 percent of the Kursk regionas he believes that Ukraine will try to occupy a large territory between Sudzha and Korenevo and, if it succeeds in holding it, it has in its favor the additional protection of the Seim, Sudzha and Psel river beds, as well as several lakes, could strengthen its position in any eventual negotiations at the end of the war, including the exchange of occupied territories.
kyiv does not claim to have ordered its army to enter Russian territory, but this is evident from the scale of the attack in terms of troops and armoured vehicles, and it somehow hinted at this yesterday:
Russia brought war to our land and must feel sorry for what it did. Today (Thursday) I have already received three reports from the Commander-in-Chief (of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr) Syrskyi, with results that our state needs at this moment.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening video message.