Comparison of the areas occupied and active by the Ukrainian army and the main battlefields of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict
Recently, everyone knows that Ukraine has opened a "second battlefield" in Russia, and the unsuspecting Russian army's home defense line was easily broken through by the Ukrainian army, and it has been advancing all the way, and so far for a week, the Russian army has still not been able to effectively prevent it.
▲ The Ukrainian army group that quickly infiltrated the rear of the Russian army
However, an interesting video was uploaded on the Internet yesterday, in which a Ukrainian soldier wearing an M35 steel helmet of the Nazi SS of World War II Germany took a selfie next to two Russian tanks destroyed in transport. The location of the road is near the village of Korenevo in the city of Belgorod.
The "German" companion also insulted a passing Russia old man" in German: "Russia Everyone is a pig, get out and drink vodka". The old Russian man looked like a beggar, and his mind was not very bright, and he was most likely an alcoholic. It was later learned that the old man's name was Gusarov, 74 years old, and he had been missing from his family for 10 days.
▲In 1943, the 2nd SS Division of Germany fought near Kursk
A German-speaking soldier wearing a German SS helmet broke into the vicinity of Kursk and destroyed two Russian tanks that had inherited the Soviet mantle. One can't help but think of the Battle of Kursk in 1943 more than 80 years ago, and that year, the same picture was similar.
▲ The United States claimed not to have known about the raid on Russia in advance
Since the Ukrainian army launched a cross-border attack on Russia's Kursk Oblast on August 6, it has advanced dozens of kilometers like chopping melons and vegetables, according to CCTV news, on August 12, the acting governor of Russia's Kursk Oblast reported to Putin that a total of 28 settlements and about 2,000 people in Kursk Oblast are controlled by the Ukrainian army.
The Ukrainian army is also trying to advance to the west and northwest of the Kursk region, taking control of more areas and possibly digging trenches and building fortifications in the controlled areas in preparation for the next protracted trench warfare.
In order to cooperate with the Kursk offensive, the Ukrainian army also launched large-scale drone attacks in the Belgorod region, Lipetsk region, Bryansk region, and Oryol region of Russia.
▲ Damaged building photographed in Kursk, Russia, on August 13
According to reference sources Austria "News" reported on the 11th that the Ukrainian army participated in the war at least 6 to 8 brigades or part of its strength, and a United States source claimed that the Ukrainian army participated in the war of more than 10,000 or 12,000 people, which is obviously much more than people expected, and the previous Russia claimed that the Ukrainian army participated in the war with only 1,000 people.
And this time the Ukrainian army occupies the area is said to have reached hundreds of square kilometers, which is about the same as the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Russian army since this spring, which shows the scale of this offensive.
In the face of the surging offensive of the Ukrainian army, Russia launched a federal-level emergency response mechanism throughout the Kursk region on August 9, while starting to frantically reinforce it.
It is reported that at least 9 newly formed brigades or their main forces are rushed to the aid of the Russian army, including marines, airborne troops, tanks and infantry from the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, the Far East, Donetsk and Luhansk, and at the same time, the Russian Air Force has also carried out fierce strikes on the Ukrainian army.
On the 12th, the Russian side said that the attack of the Ukrainian army had killed 12 civilians and injured 121 people in Kursk Oblast, and 121,000 residents in the region had been evacuated, and 11,000 residents had also been evacuated in Kra, Belgorod Oblast.
▲On August 12, soldiers and police officers from the city of Belgorod were on duty beside the road
On August 13, the Russia Ministry of Defense said that the Russian army contained the advance of the Ukrainian mobile group in many places in Kursk Oblast and "thwarted" the attack of "mobile units in armored vehicles".
▲ Pictures of Russian soldiers capturing Ukrainian soldiers
On the same day, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Sersky, told Zelensky that the Ukrainian army had taken control of 74 settlements in the Kursk region, about 1,000 square kilometers of land, and the offensive continued.
It can be said that the cross-border raid of the Ukrainian army this time is quite rapid, so why did they suddenly carry out such an operation?
Judging from the current overall war situation between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian army's raid on Kursk is a bit like "encircling Wei to save Zhao". On the Donbass front, the Ukrainian army's carefully built defense line has been almost consumed, and tens of thousands of shells are smashed down a day, and no number of infantry can withstand it! And after Bakhmut, Avadiivka was also lost, and the situation was about to be unstable.
On the Kharkiv front, whether in Liptsy or Volchansk, fierce battles have firmly pinned down many elite units such as the 82nd Air Assault Brigade of Ukraine.
Therefore, the large-scale battles instigated by the Russian army on many fronts in Kharkov, Luhansk, and Donetsk this summer, as more and more troops are put into the front line, the rear of Russia is empty, and such restless information naturally cannot hide from the eyes of the Ukrainian army, rather than sit and wait, it is better to fight to the death, fight, maybe a bicycle can become a motorcycle?
Originally, the Ukrainian army had little hope at first that this raid would achieve much results, and the initial raid on Kursk was small in size, and most of them were members of the reserve, which was more like a tentative offensive.
However, the border defense forces of the Russian army stationed in Kursk have been peaceful for a long time, and the defense line originally designed to prevent the infiltration of small anti-Russian armed forces will collapse at the touch of a button, and it will not be able to stop the substantive offensive of the Ukrainian army at all.
Coupled with the fact that the reinforcements and counterattacks of the Russian rear corps were neither rapid nor powerful, this made this small group of Ukrainian troops quickly break into the depth of the Russian side to expand the results of the battle, resulting in the bursting of the Russian defense line.
Ukraine do this, to a large extent, it should be the need to stabilize the support of the United States and Europe externally, and stabilize the morale of the army and the people internally, the Zaporozhye counterattack in the early stage ended in failure, which saw that the Donbass front was in an emergency, and the morale of the Ukrainian army was already quite low, and the United States and the European side saw that it was not possible to Ukraine, and they also wanted to stop the loss as soon as possible.
The Ukraine side saw that this could not be done, it was originally a pawn of the Western world to bleed Russia, which immediately became an outcast, so at this time it is necessary to win a victory to show that this aid is not taken in vain, and I still have the value of being assisted by you.
On the other hand, through this raid, Ukraine also wants to occupy Russia's territory, including important strategic infrastructure such as the Kursk nuclear power plant, at a relatively small cost, and gain bargaining chips with Russia, so that it can exchange land with Russia, such as the Kursk for the occupied areas around Kharkiv, and reach some form of ceasefire.
▲Russia-Ukraine negotiations in March 2022
Therefore, Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Tikshi said that the Ukrainian side is not interested in "occupying" Russia's territory, and stressed that if Moscow agrees to a "just peace", the Ukrainian army's attacks on Russia will stop as soon as possible.
To put it mildly, this raid is also related to the fact that the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Syrsky, is not trusted, and in June this year, Mariana · Bezugraya, a member of the Servant of the People party in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and deputy chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee, began to constantly criticize Syrsky's poor command, and even pointed out that he has "capitulationist" tendencies towards Russia.
This Mariana is Zelensky's cronie, and in November last year, she publicly accused Zaluzhny, then commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, of having serious problems with his command, and Zaluzhny finally resigned.
Although Syrsky had successfully commanded several victories in the Battle of Izyum, the Battle of Kupyansk (Kharkiv Region), and the Battle of Redman before taking over as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Zelensky could not fully trust him due to his typical Soviet military style and ethnic Russia identity.
After he took over as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Zelensky also deliberately promoted a group of "young strong" officers to be installed in Syrsky's command, and since May this year, the pressure on the front line of the Ukrainian army has increased suddenly, and Syrsky is obviously facing great pressure to step down, so this raid also has Syrsky's factor of letting go to protect himself.
This time, the Ukrainian army raided Kursk, which caught the Russian army by surprise, and there is no doubt about the tactical victory, but it is not optimistic in the later stage.
According to Forbes magazine in United States, the Ukrainian army participated in the battle on the Kursk front with about 10,000 troops, equipped with 600 armored vehicles and tanks, and also assembled more than 20,000 reserves in Sumy Oblast and a large number of heavy equipment ready to reinforce at any time.
However, so many troops are still stretched to such a large area as Kursk, and the Ukrainian army in Russia cannot maintain the necessary supply lines at all, and it is impossible to outflank the rear of the Russian army in Donbass, let alone fight to Moscow.
▲ In the classic network cognitive warfare, the Kursk counteroffensive actually only hit a fairly small area
Moreover, the Kursk region is flat and wide, there is no danger to defend, and the Ukrainian army has no time to build a tight defensive line, and it can only hedge against the Russian army, which is obviously not the strength of the Ukrainian army.
Coupled with the fact that the Ukrainian army has drawn so many troops to break into Kursk, the front line in the Donbass and Zaporozhye-Kherson directions will inevitably not be affected, if the Russian army reverses from Sumy and Kharkov and other directions, once a pincer offensive is formed against the Kursk Ukrainian army, this is very likely to cause a series of domino effects such as the collapse of the Donbass front, and then Ukraine needs to retreat, thereby losing more territory.
What's more troublesome is that this time the Ukrainian army attacked Russia itself, it is likely to unseal Russia, according to Russia law, compulsory soldiers are not allowed to go out of the country to fight, although the Russian army in the early stage of the special military operation is a little tricky, but generally still complied with this regulation, the advantage of troops is not so obvious.
But now with the Ukrainian army entering Kursk, this legal restriction can obviously be forgotten, and the Russian army can not only use compulsory soldiers as the main force, but it seems that it is not inappropriate to enter Ukraine in the later period of pursuit.
Therefore, don't look at the fact that many people on the Internet are now cheering at the tactical victory of the Ukrainian army, but the reaction of the Western government and media is quite weak, after all, they have no intention of continuing to intensify the contradictions with Russia and are ready to withdraw.
At this time, unless Ukraine achieves a relatively certain victory and gains the initiative in greater strategic changes, this can only make Ukraine an unreliable "daredevil" in the eyes of Western countries, thereby accelerating the military end of Ukraine.