On August 6, a powerful Ukrainian force—a dozen or so 400-person battalions from as many as eight different brigades—invaded Russia’s Kursk Oblast, quickly capturing 400 square miles of the oblast from its unprepared Russian defenders.
Five weeks later on September 12, a separate Ukrainian force with several companies or battalions launched a second invasion—breaching the Russia-Ukraine border near Novyi Put, 20 miles west of the main Kursk salient. The apparent aim of this second thrust was an ambitious one: to roll troops east to the main salient and trap potentially thousands of Russian troops between the Ukrainian invaders and the border.
But after weeks of hard fighting, the Ukrainians’ Novyi Put operation seems to be bogged down in the fields south of the town of Veseloe, a few miles north of Novyi Put. On or just before Sept. 20, a strong Ukrainian force with German-made Marder fighting vehicles and Swedish-made CV90 fighting vehicles and Strv 122 tanks rolled along the main road connecting Veseloe to Glushkovo, the next main settlement four miles to the northeast.
The Russian 106th Airborne Division was waiting. Laying mines and firing artillery, anti-tank missiles and first-person-view drones, the Russians apparently defeated the Sept. 20 Ukrainian attack as well as follow-on attacks. A drone video the 106th Airborne Division posted this week depicts 15 or 16 destroyed Ukrainian vehicles, including some of the Ukrainians’ best fighting vehicles: one or two CV90s, a Marder and an M-2 and Stryker from the United States.
The mix of vehicles underscores the importance the general staff in Kyiv has placed on the Novyi Put invasion. Companies or battalions from the 21st and 47th Mechanized Brigades (respectively with CV90s and M-2s) and 95th Air Assault Brigade (with Marders and Strykers) have joined the 225th Assault Battalion and 501st Marine Battalion attacking through Novyi Put toward Veseloe and Glushkovo. These are some of the best brigades and battalions in the Ukrainian force structure.
But even these elite formations are struggling to get past Veseloe and into Glushkovo. Unless and until the Ukrainians can advance along the main road connecting those settlements, their apparent wider goal—meeting up with the main Kursk salient—will remain aspirational.
If there’s a consolation prize for the frustrated Ukrainians, it’s that the Russians are struggling along the Veseloe-Glushkovo road, too. Counterattacks by the 106th Airborne Division or some other paratroop formation have met the same fate as the Ukrainian attacks—blasted by missiles, artillery and drones. There are as many wrecked Russian vehicles littering the road and nearby fields as there are Ukrainian vehicles.
It’s worth noting, however, that the Russians have more vehicles to lose.
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