Months after the Kursk Offensive: Ukraine fights in another Russian region

Just when the Ukrainian forces lose their grip on their conquered territory in the Kurka region, they organized not particularly stressed invasion of the neighboring Belgorod, according to Russian military bloggers.

Several Russian military correspondents said on Friday that Ukrainian troops were in Belgorod and were fighting with Russian forces there. Neither Kiev nor Moscow confirmed the Svet, although the Russian Ministry of Defense said 10 days ago that his forces had thwarted five Ukrainian attempts to cross the border in Belgorod.

The Ukrainian army has not commented on any invasion of the Belgorod region, although this may be reasons for operative security.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski, turning to reporters in Kiev, said the Ukrainian forces have taken « certain steps » in Russia outside the Kour region to ease the pressure on Ukrainian troops in the area. Zelenski said the action aims to « reduce the clump » of Russian troops and take place « just under the Kursk region ». He did not give details.

Andry Kovalenko, an employee of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine, suggested in a statement of March 18 that Ukrainian forces could act in the Belgorod area, « neutralizing the threats » by Russian forces that could be clustered near the border.

Reuters cannot independently confirm the information.

Ukrainian operation can be an attempt to distract Russian forces as they try to banish the last Ukrainian forces from a neighboring Kursk region. According to Rybar, Russia has transferred reinforcements to the Belgorod region from the Goptarus in the Kurska region.

Emil Castehelmi, a military analyzer from Finland-based Black Bird Group, said the Ukrainian forces had penetrated the first Russian defenses and was most likely advanced to a depth of three to four kilometers. But according to him, they are unlikely to make a serious breakthrough and threaten important Russian logistics paths or cities.

« In theory, Ukrainians can take over a few other villages from the border area, but that does not mean a breakthrough – it would be a small tactical success, but there is very little what to achieve in the direction of demidoving at an operative or strategic level, » he told Reuters. « There is no appropriate element of surprise and Russian presence in the area is strong enough to carry out the least successful defense operations. »

In Kursk, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Friday that his forces had taken over the village of Gogolevka, one of the few settlements still held by Ukraine of about 100, which she had taken over last August. The General Staff of Ukraine announced that its military had stopped 18 Russian attacks in the Kursk area on the last day.

Open source mapping from Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian military resource, showed that the Russian forces were controlling a part of Gogolevka, but not the whole, and pointed out that Kiev’s troops still control just under 80 square kilometers from the Kursk region.

President Vladimir Putin visited the Kursk region this month in a sign of increasing confidence that Russia would soon regain it, depriving Ukraine of a coin in future peace talks.