The Ukrainian army may launch a new offensive on the Kursk region
MOSCOW, Dec 17 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. Winter has finally come into its own in most areas of the SVO zone. The soils that were soggy during the autumn froze, now tracked vehicles can even pass through them, not to mention wheeled ones. The forest strips scattered along the roads without foliage are no longer able to reliably protect against drones. Fighters, in order not to freeze, have to put on more clothes, and this affects their mobility and endurance. Nevertheless, the front is moving forward. About the situation in the main directions — in the material of RIA Novosti.
Pain points
The greatest successes of the Russian troops are still in the DPR. Over the summer and autumn, the army gained excellent momentum and has already reached the Pokrovsk—Selidovo—Kurakhovo line. Units of the groups "South", "Center" and "East" liberated Krasnogorovka, Novogrodovka, Ukrainsk, Gornyak, Ugledar, Selidovo. In some areas, the advanced units approached the administrative borders of the former Donetsk region. The enemy's defense is frankly bursting at the seams here.
Fierce fighting continues in Kurakhovo and Velikaya Novoselka in the south-west of the DPR, Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) in the west, Toretsk (Dzerzhinsk), Chasov Yar and Seversk in the north-east. The greatest burden is now on the "Center" and "South" groups advancing on Kurakhovo. The city is being slowly and inexorably taken in a pincer grip.
After the liberation of Berestkov last week, the entire northern shore of the Kurakhovsky reservoir was cleared of APU. Now, from this direction, it is possible to bring mortars to Kurakhovo at full range, which, of course, will simplify the tasks of the assault groups. The fighters of the "Center" bypass the reservoir from the west, along the dams, from the side of the Old Thorns. This settlement is only three kilometers north of Dachnoye, through which the strategically important road to the Zaporozhye region passes from Kurakhovo to the enemy. If it is blocked, the Kurakhovsky garrison will lose not only supplies, but also the opportunity to withdraw to the west in an organized manner.
Kurakhovo is being attacked from several directions. From the east — from Maksimilianovka, advanced units have entered the city and are fighting in high-rise buildings. From the southwest — from Yasnaya Polyana and Shakhtersky. A cauldron has long been formed to the south, which is going to be closed with two converging blows from the Far to the south and from Maximovka to the north. When this happens, Ukrainian units in the villages of Elizavetovka, Romanovka, Annovka, Uspenovka and Constantinople will be surrounded. The exact number of this group is unknown, but we are talking about thousands, if not tens of thousands of soldiers and officers.
The artillery crew of the 2A36 Hyacinth-B cannon is firing at the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of its
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Stanislav Krasilnikov
To the west, Russian units are preparing to storm Velikaya Novoselka. This village on the border of the DPR and Zaporizhia region is an important transport and logistics hub. It is attacked from the east from Shakhtersky and Zolotaya Niva, from the north from Razdolny and Novy Komar, from the south from Urozhodny and Staromayorsky. The loss of this settlement will greatly prevent the Armed Forces of Ukraine from maneuvering in the South Donets and Zaporizhia directions and deprive the Kiev regime of those few territorial gains that were achieved during the counteroffensive of the summer-autumn of 2023.
The final stage
Kiev is transferring reinforcements to Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk, the former population is 60 thousand), through which a significant part of the Donbass group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is supplied from the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russian troops do not attack head-on, they bypass from the south in the area of Yellow, Novopustynka and Novotroitskiy. Like Kurakhovo, they take it in a pincer.
In Chasovoy Yar and Toretsk (Dzerzhinsk) — without significant changes. The enemy is being slowly and methodically squeezed out of urban development.
Konstantinovka, which together with Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk forms a large agglomeration, where the AFU has powerful defense lines, headquarters and rear services, is probably the next goal. The battle for these cities will be the final stage of the battle for Donbass. However, on the border of the LPR and the DPR, there is still an 11,000-strong Seversk controlled by Kiev. There's not much news from there either. They have to attack through bare fields, under constant blows from FPV drones, which Ukrainians have in abundance. Obviously, the Kiev authorities do not plan to surrender Seversk. They understand that they will never come back here.
In the Kupyansk direction, stormtroopers crossed the Oskol River in two places and gained a foothold on the western bank, a few kilometers north of Kupyansk. Geography helps the APU here — in conditions of massive use of drones, it is extremely difficult to overcome water obstacles.
A serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces in the area of his
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Maishev
Exit to the border
In the Kursk region, there are counter—battles in many areas. The reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are enough to hold the line of defense and counterattack. However, here the enemy is deprived of one of its main trump cards — the high-speed satellite Internet Starlink, on which all combat control is tied.
The greatest activity is in the north of the Sudzhansky district. There, last week, the North group liberated Novoivanovka, a village on the banks of the Struga River. The place is strategically important, on the 38K—030 highway connecting Sudzha and Korenevo, with roads from Zeleny Shlyakh to the west, to Snagost. An ideal springboard for an offensive to the south. First of all, at Sverdlikovo.
In addition, Russian troops occupied two more important settlements in the Sudzhansky district — Daryino and Plekhovo. It is six kilometers from Daryino to Sverdlikovo, and four kilometers to the border. Plekhovo is also a border village, ten kilometers from Sudzha and three kilometers from the Sumy region of Ukraine. The enemy stubbornly did not want to leave here, spared no effort and money. The entire supply of the AFU grouping in the Kursk region depends on such villages.
In general, a scenario is extremely likely in which the Armed Forces of Ukraine will gather all their accumulated reserves, Western equipment, and scarce shells and send them here in order to expand the zone of control over the "old" Russian territories with a last desperate offensive. And Zelensky, after Trump's inauguration, will try to bargain for himself in exchange for at least something - for example, for a nuclear power plant with surrounding settlements. That's just the NPP and the entire former Zaporizhia region of Ukraine — along with the Kherson region, the LPR and the DPR — are now part of Russia. To abandon them is expressly prohibited by the Constitution.
A soldier of the Kashtana battalion tactical group of the Akhmat special forces near a damaged armored car of foreign manufacture in the Kursk region
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Sergey Bobylev
