This Swift Ukrainian Armored Assault Isn't Good News For Ukraine
It's dramatic, yes, but the Ukrainian breach near Novyi Put in western Russia points to a previous Ukrainian withdrawal from this part of Russia.
Five weeks after breaking through Russian border defenses and advancing into Kursk Oblast in western Russia near the village of Novyi Put, Ukrainian troops breached the border again—and in the same place—on or around Oct. 25.
The breach, which was exploited by a pair of M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles accompanying a single M-1 Abrams tank—all three belonging to the Ukrainian army’s elite 47th Mechanized Brigade—actually isn’t good news for Ukraine’s three-month-old invasion of Kursk Oblast.
Yes, the videos of the action—depicting a small but swift armored assault under Russian fire—are impressive. But Ukrainian troops shouldn’t have to breach the border at this spot and at this point in time.
That’s because, on Sept. 12, Ukrainian forces including the army’s 21st Mechanized Brigade and the Khorne Group drone team broke through anti-tank obstacles and earthworks just south of Novyi Put—roughly the same place as the October breach—and raced toward the nearest big Russian settlement, the town of Veseloe, two miles to the north.
The Ukrainians’ goal, it seemed, was to turn right around Veseloe and race the 20 miles toward the main Ukrainian salient in Kursk. This turn could’ve cut off hundreds or even thousands of poorly-trained, ambivalently led Russian conscripts in Kursk.
But the link-up never happened. The Ukrainians got bogged down south and east of Veseloe on a road that now is littered with the husks of burned-out vehicles from both sides. Meanwhile, Russian troops counterattacked the main Ukrainian salient and retook a hundred square miles—a quarter of the salient at its biggest.
That the 47th Mechanized Brigade had to breach the border again around Novyi Put in late October strongly implies that the brigade and adjacent units don’t have an enduring presence around Veseloe.
Likewise, they don’t control the border around Novyi Put. If they want to engage the Russians between the border and Veseloe, they have to breach the border. Again. That could mean they’ve pulled back from positions they may have held just a few weeks ago.
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