Ukrainian Forces In Kursk Moving East, West and North

As Shakespeare said (Julius Caesar), "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."

Or, in other words, create as much damage and confusion to your enemy as you can while you can, which is exactly what Ukraine is doing. JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

Ukraine’s current East-West multi-pronged movements in Kursk Oblast also explains quite well this need for Ukraine to secure Sumy and Chernihiv Oblasts.  Ukraine’s destruction of the bridges on the Seim river in Glushkovsky district of Kursk Oblast has the added benefit of potentially creating a cauldron in which hundreds of Russian soldiers, mostly conscripts, could be caught.

For days since Ukraine made its surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, policy makers around the world, military analysts, and sundry arm chair experts have tried to figure out what Ukraine’s ultimate goal is with this recent gambit. 

If we accept President Zelenskyi’s declaration yesterday that the incursion was to primarily create a “buffer zone” to protect Ukraine’s Northern regions from further Russian depredations as the actuating motive then the emerging multi-pronged movements of Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast begin to make sense.  Ukraine does really need to protect its northern oblasts.

 

The now ill-starred Russian incursion into Kharkiv got all the attention but Russia had also accelerated its regular small-scale, Spec Op level incursions from Bryansk and Kursk Oblasts into Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv just before Ukraine launched its own big incursion in Russian Kursk Oblast.  Some of the pictures from thwarted Russian small scale incursions are quite gruesome.  The report linked below is one of many online.  

William Spaniel’s analysis of Ukraine’s current East-West multi-pronged movements in Kursk Oblast also explains quite well this need for Ukraine to secure Sumy and Chernihiv Oblasts.  Ukraine’s destruction of the bridges on the Seim river in Glushkovsky district of Kursk Oblast has the added benefit of potentially creating a cauldron in which hundreds of Russian soldiers, mostly conscripts, could be caught.  Normally one would not think of the capture of conscripts as high value.  But in the Russian socio-political sphere, these captured conscripts, mostly teenagers, who by law are not supposed to be engaged in active front line fighting could become a huge  problem for Putin and his regime.