Border condition: Ukrainian forces failed to reach their targets near Kursk

In early August, the Ukrainian armed forces launched a terrorist attack on the border areas of Kursk Region. The Russian Ministry of Defense named the goals of this operation as pulling our reserves out of Donbas and the media effect. The enemy's advance was stopped, and by the end of the year half of the captured territory was liberated. Experts note that for the enemy the attack on the Kursk region turned out to be a bloody adventure - he suffered heavy losses, having wasted his main reserves in the fighting.

Exactly at 5:30 a.m.

The AFU went on the offensive at 5:30 a.m. on August 6 to seize territories in the Kursk region. The enemy was met by the few forces covering the state border together with border guards and reinforcement units.
As of the evening of August 7, the AFU's losses totaled 315, including at least 100 killed and 215 wounded. Fifty-four units of armored vehicles, including seven tanks, were destroyed.

The air strikes and artillery fire, as well as successful actions of the Marine Corps and army units succeeded in foiling the attempts of the AFU mobile groups and foreign mercenaries to break through deep into the territory of the Russian Federation. Thus began the battles in the border region, which received the unofficial name of the "Battle of Kursk".

In December, during a direct line, Vladimir Putin assessed this operation of the AFU as senseless.

"There was no military sense at all: neither for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to enter the Kursk region, nor to hold on there now as they are doing, throwing their best assault groups and units there for slaughter," the president said.

The head of state noted the extreme losses of the enemy during the invasion.

"Now the number of armored vehicles hit in Kursk region has already, I think, outgrown the amount of equipment destroyed by our guys for the whole of last year on the entire line of contact," the president stressed.

Vladimir Putin promised that the enemy will definitely be knocked out of Russian territories, but did not name a specific date.

"I imagine, I know, there are plans, they are reported to me on a regular basis, but just to say, here by such a date, it is not done, because the guys hear me - a day, two, I will name such a date, and they will go by all means to this date, will not count with losses. We can't do that," the president said.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the AFU lost more than 45,000 men, more than 1,800 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 350 artillery pieces, mortars and multiple rocket launchers during the fighting in the border areas of the Kursk region.

The AFU did not reach their goals

The AFU did not achieve its goals in the Kursk region, the chairman of the board of the all-Russian organization "Officers of Russia," reserve lieutenant colonel Roman Shkurlatov, told Izvestia.

- We understand that the enemy initially wanted to capture three district centers," the expert said. - In the end, he managed to capture only one of them - Sudzha. Another target was the city of Kurchatov, where the Kursk nuclear power plant is located. The enemy tried to move as fast as possible. They found weak points in the defense, introduced maneuvering and sabotage groups on wheeled vehicles to go as deep as possible. It was not easy for us to understand where the enemy had flashed and where he had put in serious forces. But our units quickly enough oriented themselves in the situation, overcoming the uncertainty of the first days, and found the line of contact. After that it became clear that the offensive would be stopped. The enemy's plans were thwarted.

The expert noted that the original bridgehead has since been significantly reduced - by about half.

- The main defense hub remains the town of Suja," the expert noted. - The AFU have created fortifications there and mined it. They will cling to the city with their teeth. The political task is to hold out at least until the new U.S. president takes office. They believe that these territories will become a bargaining chip and provide them with more favorable conditions in the negotiations, if they start. There are no military prospects there, and tens of thousands of lives have been thrown on the altar of Kiev's political fantasies.

The expert noted that the AFU now has a small reserve of up to four brigades left.

- The forces are small, but in January they can throw them into an offensive in Kursk, Bryansk or Belgorod regions," he said. - The point of such an operation is still the same - to show Trump and the West that they are still moving and can do something.

"BARS-Kursk."

Residents of the Kursk region were united by the terrorist attack. Many of them joined the newly formed volunteer unit "BARS-Kursk". Earlier "Izvestia" wrote that all volunteers have undergone special training. The unit provides support to representatives of law enforcement agencies - PPS, DPS, Rosgvardia, military police.

The unit's tasks include protection and defense of life support and infrastructure facilities, fighting drones, identifying and fighting sabotage groups, ensuring evacuation of civilians and the regime of counter-terrorist operation.

As the border areas of Kursk Oblast are liberated from the AFU, the returned territories will be included in their area of responsibility.

Mercenaries, Abrams and Krotal SAMs

Our fighters from the first day of fighting in the border area began to burn foreign armored vehicles. They seriously thinned the ranks of American Abrams tanks and German Leopards. The Russian Defense Ministry shared details of the destruction of several Abrams.

One of them was hit near the village of Ivanovskoye by a UAV unit of paratroopers using an FPV drone with fiber optic wire control.

Earlier "Izvestia" told the details of the battle, in which a French-made Krotal SAM system was destroyed in the Sujan direction. Our helicopters hovered over one of the landings and began to destroy a column of enemy armored vehicles when an unknown vehicle emerged from the forest. The operator of the kamikaze drone immediately attacked it.

The second UAV recorded the destruction of the first French air defense system on Russian soil. France made only about 10 of them. One such installation costs about €8 million.

Marders, Strykers, Bushmasters, Max Pro, M-113s, and Finnish APCs burned in large numbers in the Kursk border region. At least one British Challenger tank was hit. American Bradley BMPs were also destroyed.

The destruction of foreign mercenaries was repeatedly reported from the border areas. Fighters and commanders of formations told Izvestia that "soldiers of fortune" FOG (American private military company Forward Observation Group), foreign military companies of Great Britain, units with Georgian and Polish mercenaries were seen in the region.

All crimes committed by AFU soldiers and foreign mercenaries in Kursk Oblast and other Russian border regions are documented and investigated by the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. There are already those who have been convicted and those awaiting sentencing.