Ukrainian Engineers Just Breached Russia's Anti-Tank Defenses in Kursk, Kicking Off Another Incursion Onto Russian Soil
'Fuck me,' a Russian soldier moaned as he observed the risky maneuver
A Ukrainian breaching vehicle punched through Russian anti-tank defenses along the Russia-Ukraine border near the village of Tetkino in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast on or just before Monday.
A Russian drone watched as the German-made Wisent, fitted with claw-like mine plows, shoved through the concrete dragon’s teeth in broad daylight. “Oh, fuck me,” a Russian soldier moaned as he monitored the drone’s feed. (See WarTranslated’s video below.)
It was a fresh Ukrainian incursion in Kursk, kicking off nearly two months after a substantial Ukrainian force—a dozen or more battalions, each with hundreds of soldiers—retreated from a 250-square-mile salient they had clung to in Kursk since last August.
The Kursk invaders never managed to secure their northern flank around the Snahist River. After months of back-and-forth fighting, an elite Russian drone group set up along that flank—and relentlessly bombarded the main road into the Ukrainian salient, strangling the Ukrainian battalions and forcing them to flee in early March.
Costly incursion
The Kursk incursion cost the Ukrainians dearly. Where Ukrainian forces normally destroy three or more Russian vehicles for every vehicle they lose, and kill or maim twice as many Russians as the Russians kill or maim Ukrainians, in Kursk between August and March there was a parity in losses.
Ukraine cannot afford to lose as many people and vehicles as the Russians lose—not as long as Russia has triple Ukraine’s population and 10 times its national wealth. That Kursk hurt the Ukrainians so badly begs the question: why did a Ukrainian brigade, presumably the nearby 21st Mechanized Brigade, send a precious German engineering vehicle through the border fortifications?
Sure, Ukraine has gotten more than 60 of the 47-ton, four-person Wisents and has lost just nine of them. Still, engineering vehicles with breaching capability are a valuable resource—something an army shouldn’t casually risk. It’s not for no reason analyst Jakub Janovsky called the Tetkino breach “a waste of limited Ukrainian resources.”
We don’t yet know how many other Ukrainian vehicles or infantry followed that Wisent through the dragon’s teeth. In other words, we don’t yet know the scale of the new incursion.
Whatever their scale, retired U.S. Army general Ben Hodges believes Ukraine’s cross-border attacks will continue—and for good reason. “Every commander wants the initiative,” Hodges said. “What the Ukrainians achieved in Kursk in August, that’s exactly what that was. They changed the narrative.”
“They will continues looking for opportunities to do that,” Hodges added. Perhaps sending Wisents plowing through Russian defenses to allow Ukrainian forces to bring the war to the Russians.
Even if it costs the Ukrainians dearly.
Read more:
150 Russians Attacked in Southern Donetsk, Mostly on Motorcycles. Almost All of Them Were Killed or Wounded.
A large Russian force attacked positions held by the Ukrainian army’s 31st Mechanized Brigade in southern Donetsk Oblast on Saturday and Sunday. A very large Russian force.