offensive to the Sumy region, the course of hostilities
The Russian army continues an offensive in the Kursk region and practically squeezed out units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Armed Forces) from Russian territory. The enemy is in no hurry to give up positions and even makes counterattacks, but it is already obvious that the Kursk operation of the RF Armed Forces is close to successful completion. Correspondent « Kommersant » Dmitry Jacks He visited several divisions and found out how the offensive was held, how the Kursk campaign was different from the previous ones and what will happen after the Russian military finally expel the Armed Forces from the territory of the Russian Federation.
« Cool, competently, bold »
The 155th separate guards brigade of the Marine Corps of the Pacific Fleet is deployed in three and a half hours of driving from Kursk. Just a month ago, the brigade for its combat successes received the honorary name « Kurskaya » from the president. “Cool, competently, boldly,” then Vladimir Putin described the action of Morpekhov then.
The fighters of this unit during a spring attack on Sudzh for three days on foot and without equipment passed 11.5 km in a straight line, from positions in the Nikolaevka farm to the 2nd prince. And this is in the conditions of modern hostilities, when the dominance of drones in the sky has practically nullified the “fog of the war” and the enemy sees every attempt to approach his positions, and almost every bush was shot by artillery.
Given the fact that in these conditions, even the advance “at a time” by 300-500 m is considered a great success, this can probably be called foot local blitzkrieg.
Arriving at the meeting place in the civilian car, I am transplanted into a “loaf” more adapted to the mud and after a short shaking along the spring thaw and ten minutes on foot on a snowy forest planting I find myself in the location of the tank battalion of the brigade. Around – a lot of fortified dugouts, in which there are light, stoves and even the Internet. Inside one of the dugouts on a wooden bed, I immediately notice a white fluffy spot.
“And in almost every dugout we have animals,” explains the mechanic-driver of the T-80BM tank with a call sign dad. “Here is Elmira, the White Siberian, protects us from mice.” Now they are not, but by summer there will be crowds here …
After a brief tea party, I go to the first position from the road – a field parking. There, tankers are busy finalizing cars in their own variation of the “Tsar-Mangal”: with systems of electronic warfare on three sides and an extensive landing department inside the box from welded steel sheets. The crew member, the gunner with the call sign, willingly shows and tells: the sheets are placed in two layers, and between them there is another handicraft armored element that can withstand one section of the armor up to four to five hits of the FPV throne. Soon, such “robes” will be planned to plan all the brigade tanks.
In a personal conversation, the tankers explained that over three years, the drones became the largest headache, while anti -tank guided missiles, reactive shells and enemy tanks « did not even go to the second, but to the third plan. » Previously, the installation of such a superstructure at times increases the survivability of the tank against enemy UAVs with cumulative ammunition, even with the loss of low -strength of the machine. And taking into account the assault nature of the unit, the tank converted in this way turns into a heavy armored personnel carrier that can more effectively hold the blow of modern anti -tank weapons and to bring the infantry to the enemy’s positions with great success than the easily worn -in -law BTRs.
« We were preparing for very hard resistance »
After half an hour, the officer accompanying me gives the go -ahead to move to the next position – the base of the first battalion of the Marine Corps. Half an hour of the journey – and we are in the location of the unit. After a cursory excursion, they lead me into the dusk of the dusk, the commander of the assault company, whose company in the conversation is the castle of companies with the call sign of Zhek. Both on his from 2022 and went from the ordinary staff to receiving officer shoulder straps.
Over the past six months, the brigade fighters conducted many small operations, the result of which in the end was the enemy entering the ticks in the Sudzhansky district, says Zheka. “The communication routes, supply and evacuation were cut off, and the bridges were just undermined by the fact that they were coming from Sudzhi.
The operation “Stream” has become one of the key points. When the senior commanders knew that the guys went to the enemy rear, the team was given to storm, ”the officer recalls.
At the same time, according to him, the Kursk campaign was several times more heavier than the previous ones due to large open spaces and complex soil for caterpillar heavy technology. “If we compare the South Donet -to -Treasy direction with the fact that here, from the point of view of tactics and opportunities for the offensive, these are completely different things. There were no so many drones, artillery, it was easier to move secretly, ”says Zheka. And the dusk adds that almost the entire offensive was on foot, so the attack aircraft and fighters of the military cover platoons (mortars, ATG operators and a platoon with automatic easel grenade launchers) had to carry everything on themselves:
– Guys, we must pay tribute to them, did not slow down, did not throw anything away, did not slow down the attack aircraft. Everyone laid out to the full, both attack aircraft and command staff. We were preparing for very hard resistance, everyone understood that this was an extreme bridgehead and they would be very held for it. But our guys caught the courage: they realized that they broke the will of the enemy, and moved on the courage.
Remembering the tanks of the neighboring battalion just seen, I asked why the offensive passed without them. And he received a simple answer: assault on technology is always an extra risk of blowing a mine, encountering a technical malfunction, or, more likely, “catch the drone”. Therefore, “the guys did without technology,” because there was no sense in chasing her in position.
After almost an hourly conversation, I go to Kursk. The dusk escorts me with a promise: « Now we are on vacation, but about where we will be further, you will soon learn from the news. »
« The road from Sumy to Yunakovka is completely shot by us »
Under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Russian territory, the settlements of Gogolevka, Oreshnya still remain (both are located near the road to Ukrainian Yunakovka), Guevo and Gornal (southwest of the Sudzhansky district). According to the Ministry of Defense reports, the Russian military every day “conduct fierce battles” in border forest belts west of Gogolevka and in the vicinity of Guevo. At the same time, offensive operations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are already conducting in the territory of the Sumy region of Ukraine – in the area of the village of Vladimir, the villages of Zhuravka and Basovka.
In this operation, the fighters of the 83rd separate Guards Airborne Cross Brigade are also involved, in the location of which I was able to get in the early morning of March 21. According to the artillery chief of the 83rd brigade with the call sign Keb, the units fighters are offensive from the north-west direction, and the artillery, according to UAV operators, inflicts a fire defeat for the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “Our connection is responsible for the site from Yunakovka towards the city of Sumy. Every day we destroy four to five units, and sometimes ten or more units of equipment, ”Keb reports during my visit to the control point of the Ussuri paratroopers.
The control point is located in the basement of one of the administrative buildings near the front. There are also compactly housed residential premises, a smoking room, a dining room and a place for washing. And above the aisle to the place of operational meetings at an altitude of about 1.7 m from the floor, a pipe passes, on which the inscription is glued: “Place to strike the head”. Such an army humor.
The enemy did not abandon attempts to gain a foothold in the Kursk region and, as he can, tries to slow down the advance of the Russian troops, continues Keb. But this promotion, apparently, will no longer be limited only to the limits of the Kursk region: the RF Armed Forces intend to take the APU group in the Sumy region into the operational environment, then to close the ring. This is also necessary for the formation of a buffer zone, the possible creation of which President Putin spoke in March 2023 in the territories of Ukraine in the territories of Ukraine. Keb is now talking about this:
-Units from the southeast and north-west are narrowing their supply corridor, the entire road from Sumy to Yunakovka is completely shot by us. The enemy is trying to protect the road with opposition nets, but we make holes there with artillery so that our drones can fly into them. As a result, now the supply of supply to the units defenders in the Sumy region has practically nullified the APU.
After that, according to the plan, the escort and I were supposed to go to the location of the gunners. But the weather intervened. At the sunrise of the sun, the clouds “fled”, and our route, like the work of artillery, could get into the lens of the Ukrainian intelligence drone – with all the ensuing capabilities of subsequent “arrivals”. Since it does not allow me to wait for the evening and go there on the gray time, the visit to the paratroopers has to be completed ahead of schedule.
– Then maybe next time? I am sure, then it will work out, – seeing my annoyance, Keb encourages me.
“I hope that there will be no reason for the next time,” I conclude optimistically.
