Kremlin Claims Big Victory in Kursk Sector, Army Chief of Staff Hands Out Medals

Kremlin-controlled information platforms on Tuesday claimed a major victory in the Kursk sector, with a media blitz profiling medals awarded for heroism and images of Russian Federation flags raised in recently liberated villages.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense (RMoD) on Tuesday claimed a week-long offensive against a Ukraine-held salient inside Russia had by Tuesday liberated 12 settlements (Agronom, Bogdanovka, Bondarevka, Dmitryukov, Zazulevka, Ivashkovsky, Kolmakov, Kubatkin, Martynovka, Mikhailovka, Pravda, Yuzhny), and returned more than 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) of Russia’s Kursk region to Kremlin control.

Ukraine, in August, invaded Russia to capture about 900 square kilometers (347.5 square miles) of Russian territory but has slowly lost ground against months of relentless Russian assaults. North Korean troops sent by Pyongyang as reinforcements first saw combat in the sector in December.

Major Russian media profiled area commander Colonel General Valeriy Solodchuk as the author of a new round of massive air and ground assaults against Ukrainian positions and aired images of Solodchuk saluting and then shaking hands with Russian Army General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov in an underground headquarters reportedly in the Kursk region. Other images showed Russian missile carriers rumbling along an unidentified road and Solodchuk showing Gerasimov a map.

Other Topics of Interest

‘A Remarkable Breakthrough’ – Trump Will ‘Likely’ Speak With Putin About Ceasefire

“We have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow,” US President says, adding that Zelensky is welcome to come back to the White House.

Official Kremlin sources said heavy Russian firepower backed by sophisticated infantry assaults had liberated about 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in the past week, and that the Ukrainian foothold inside Russia had been reduced to about 290 square kilometers (112 square miles).

The popular pro-Kremlin milblogger Voevoda Veshchaet on Tuesday released to his 150,000-plus followers rare video images of Russian Air Force Ka-27 helicopter gunships and Su-25 attack jets racing towards Ukrainian positions in a Soviet-style wave attack, according to that platform, in the Kursk sector.

The RMoD on Tuesday aired an interview with an officer identified as the commander of 72nd Motor Rifle Regiment, a formation participating in recent Kursk sector assaults. According to that account, Russian forces used combined arms tactics uniting artillery, air strikes and attack drones to force Ukrainians from positions around the villages of Sorochina and Staraya Sorochina. Kremlin troops in that sector had stopped attacks and were digging in, he said.

Video published by Russia’s state-run RT-1 television channel reported that elements of the 30th Motor Rifle Regiment and the Akhmat Group, a paramilitary unit from Chechnya, had taken control of the village of Kubatkin after infiltrating 15 kilometers (9.3 miles)  behind Ukrainian lines via an unused gas pipeline.

The report said paratroopers from the 11th Airborne Brigade and volunteer fighters followed up the underground attack with an assault into an industrial suburb of the city of Sudzha, farther west. Ukrainian defenses “fell apart” during the three-day operation launched on Saturday, that official Kremlin broadcast claimed.

An official RFMoD video made public on Tuesday morning showed Gerasimov pinning medals on seven service members for “valor and courage shown during battles for the liberation of Kursk lands.”

Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky, in a late Monday statement he said was made following visits to Kursk sector headquarters, confirmed Ukrainian retreat from some positions but claimed troop discipline held during the withdrawals. Russian forces took heavy losses, gaining a chain of ruined villages and Ukrainian defenses are still strong and battle-capable, he claimed.

“A number of settlements on the border line, the names of which appear in the reports of Russian propagandists, no longer actually exist – they have been destroyed by the fire of the aggressor. Despite the involvement of a significant number of Russian troops, reinforced by North Korean infantry, in the offensive, the enemy suffers significant losses in manpower and equipment… there is no threat of encirclement to our units in the Kursk region,” Syrsky said.

The independent Ukrainian military journalist Yuriy Butusov confirmed the Russian infantry reached the Sudzha city outskirts and reported Russian forces were still using the pipeline to deliver food and ammunition to forward troops.

The exits from the pipeline are under close Ukrainian drone surveillance and Russian forces were taking heavy losses from first-person view (FPV) and drone bomb strikes, he said. A Ukrainian counterattack pushed Russian troops out of Sudzha city and a battle was on for control of the pipeline exits nearby, Butusov said.

Video images published over the weekend by 80th Air Assault Brigade, an elite unit raised in Ukraine’s western Lviv region, showed Russian or North Korean infantry struck repeatedly by cluster munitions.

A battle report from Ukraine’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade said its troops used drones, mortars and artillery to halt an assault by two battalions (500-1,000 soldiers) of North Korean commandoes near the village of Guevo, and then threw that force back with losses.

A battle account from 225th Assault Regiment, a veteran infantry unit often operating with 33rd Brigade, reported the Ukrainians held their ground and that the North Koreans “suffered significant losses.”

Those and other reports from Ukrainian units in Kursk sector reported ground lost to Russian attacks but contradicted Kremlin narratives of Ukrainian units’ dissolving in rout. Some Ukrainian accounts told of withdrawals to prepared positions, but in some cases only reached after hikes of 10-20 kilometers (6.2-12.4 miles).

The independent Russian political scientist Andrei Nikulin in a Tuesday situation analysis said that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing deliberately and possibly might be planning to evacuate Russian Federation territory completely.

“I think all this points to a sharp and deliberate reduction in the Ukrainian salient. Simply put, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have withdrawn most of their forces to Sudzha, or rather, have withdrawn them to the western half of the city. This is the beginning of their withdrawal from Kursk Oblast…

I have no doubts that this withdrawal of troops will take place… The Kursk operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is ending.”

“The enemy’s offensive was not unexpected… There is no threat of encirclement of our troops, now our troops are strengthening their positions. But the situation remains unfavorable in tactical and operational terms,” Butusov wrote.