Forbes: Ukrainian Forces Preparing For Large-Scale Battle
- 25.11.2024, 11:36
The battle must take place in the Kursk region.
The Kremlin has bolstered its roughly 50,000-strong corps in Kursk with thousands of North Korean troops along with elements of two Russian airborne divisions, the 76th and 106th, plus the 83rd Air Assault Brigade and the rebuilt 155th Naval Infantry Brigade.
According to Forbes, these units and others are poised just northwest of the road through Zelenyi Shylakh.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are preparing for the upcoming large-scale battle.
“In the nearest future we expect a massive and, in my humble opinion, successful Russian advance at my flank in Kursk region,” wrote Kreigsforscher, a Ukrainian marine corps drone operator who has been supporting the Ukrainian corps in Kursk.
It is noted that although the Kremlin has given its general until early February to eject the Ukrainians from western Russia, the real deadline, it seems, is the January 20 inauguration of the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to end Russia’s wider war on Ukraine but whose offhand proposals hinge on an unenforceable ceasefire that would freeze the front line in place.
“Two Russian VDV divisions, one VDV brigade and one marine brigade will launch an assault with a lot of maneuvers,” Kriegsforscher warned, using the Russian acronym for “airborne.”
The 20,000-strong Ukrainian force in Kursk — drawn from the 41st and 47th Mechanized Brigades, the 82nd and 95th Air Assault Brigades and the 17th Heavy Mechanized Brigade, among other units — is bracing for the renewed Russia attack. The 17th Heavy Mechanized Brigade, a reorganized former tank brigade, has been holding the line just north of the road to Sudzha.
“The brigade’s recent actions underscore the sheer violence of the escalating battle. It’s extremely dangerous to move along the front line without armor protection. So the 17th Heavy Mechanized Brigade has deployed some of its 60 T-64BV tanks as improvised supply vehicles. In one chaotic mission on or before November 16, one of the 42-ton, three-person T-64s hauled a load of food to an entrenched infantry unit —
and then immediately opened fire on nearby Russians with its 125-millimeter main gun. As the tank was withdrawing back to its forest base, a Russian drone struck, damaging but not stopping the tank,” Forbes writes.
The danger to Ukrainian troops will only increase as the Russian counterattack intensifies. The reason for optimism is that Russian forces in and around Kursk are subject to a relentless campaign of precision deep strikes by Ukrainian air force bombers and Ukrainian army rocket batteries, respectively firing British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles and American-made Army Tactical Missile System ballistic missiles.
The deep strikes could fray the supply lines to the regiments, brigades and divisions in Kursk — and disrupt their command and control. Regardless of this, mass will count for a lot in the coming mechanized clash.