In Donbas, Kursk, Maps Show Ukraine Holding, Exacting Terrible Price From Russia

An examination of recent changes in maps of the Ukrainian battlefront reveals that Ukraine's forces are largely holding their ground. 

By any objective analysis, Russian advances have been minimal and have come at a price so terrible that it is being viewed as detrimental to Russia's long term military capabilities. JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

The Ukrainians in the frozen Donbas defensive lines are holding and exacting a huge toll for every inch the Russians gain and bleeding the waves of “meat assault” forces.  Much like the froth about Pokrovsk falling in a few days earlier this summer, the current hoopla is about the Russians encircling the Ukrainian force at Uspenivka on the Kurakhove-Pokrovsk line. But it is not as if the Ukrainians have no idea what to do or just sit there and watch the Russians roll over them to take Pokrovsk. In Kursk, the Ukrainians are holding at bay 50,000 to 60,000 Russians and North Koreans including some of Russia’s vaunted airborne.

The situation is undoubtedly tense and fluid all along the battle trace in Ukraine.  Nowhere easy. Russia is throwing at Ukraine everything including the proverbial kitchen sink and reportedly using barely armed North Koreans as reconnaissance-in-force cannon fodder. In other words Kim Jung Un’s much heralded soldiers are being sent into icy snow bound fields to absorb Ukrainian bullets so that the Russians can scope out Ukrainian positions and strength.  This is what the North Koreans agreed to?  And they are going to send upwards of 100,000 more for this?  At this rate the folks in Seoul need not fret too much about North Koreans returning home to Pyongyang having gained much vaunted Russian modern infantry fighting skills.

Many observers doubted and could not understand why Ukraine made their August 2024 advance into Russia’s Kursk oblast.  In certain quarters that disdain continues. It does not make military sense when the brigades sent into Kursk could be helping to bolster the lines in Donetsk , for example, they say.  The post Avdiivka rapid Russian advance into parts of  Western Donetsk oblast seemed inexorable and months ago popular opinion was that Pokrovsk was all but a goner.  It may yet fall … as the Russians continue to inch forward day by day.  But as I said here earlier, to the dismay of some, it is not as if the Ukrainians have no idea what to do or are gonna just sit there and watch the Russians roll all over them and take Pokrovsk.

The Ukrainian men and women in the cold frozen defensive lines, such as the very experienced 35th Marine Brigade(famous for being among the units to make the earliest breakthroughs in the Russian Surovikin lines and capturing Robotyne in the 2023 counter-offensive) are holding and exacting a huge toll for every inch the Russians gain and bleeding the waves of “meat assault” forces in front of them.  Much like the froth about Pokrovsk falling in a few days earlier this summer, the current hoopla is about the Russians encircling the Ukrainian force at Uspenivka on the Kurakhove-Pokrovsk line.  The ever optimist me says ... just like at Vuhledar and Selydove, when the time is right the Ukrainians will once again execute one of the most difficult military maneuvers … a fighting retrograde to the next defensive line while bleeding the Russians as much as possible:

 Every day we hold the crowd, every day we make it weaker. The defense forces are destroying the enemy across the front.

… General Syrskyi, Ukrainian Armed Forces CinC

Similarly in Kursk, contrary to what some argued would be quick defeat of the Ukrainians once  Russian artillery arrives on the scene, the Ukrainians are managing to hold at bay an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Russians and North Koreans including some of Russia’s vaunted VDV airborne troop formations.  At Kursk, the Russians are fighting in their own backyard.  And yet there sit the Ukrainians like “a stonewall”(to quote the immortal words of Confederate General Barnard Bee describing fellow general Thomas J. Jackson at the Battle of Bull Run):

“We are holding back large reserves there" - SBU Colonel Kostenko on Kursk sector.

global.espreso.tv/...

Where would those large Russian reserves be were they not engaged in Kursk?  Your guess is as good as mine.  The chess game continues apace.  Syrski is strategically using all his pieces … all across the board… defense in depth.  And he is no arm chair HQ general.  He is constantly on the move visiting his troopers all along the battle trace, especially where the action is hottest.