On Thursday, Ukrainian combat engineers breached Russian defenses along the border near the village of Novyi Put, around 20 miles west of the 400-square-mile Ukrainian salient in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
What at first appeared to be a brief and shallow Ukrainian assault in fact developed into something far more dangerous to Russian control over Kursk. Ukrainian armored trucks swiftly advanced several miles past Novyi Put toward the nearest town, Vesoloe. Now the Ukrainian force “has reached the southern outskirts of Vesoloe and has practically taken control of it,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported.
No later than Saturday, Ukrainian tanks rolled into Vesoloe. And on Sunday, a Ukrainian air force fighter-bomber lobbed a satellite-guided glide bomb—reportedly a U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition—at a purported Russian position in a building in central Vesoloe, flattening the building while a drone from the Ukrainian Khorne Group watched from overhead. “We are observing all of you,” the group quipped on social media.
The Russian garrison around Vesoloe reportedly includes a large number of poorly-trained young conscripts, who were drafted for just a year of military service and, according to Kremlin policy, aren’t supposed to see combat.
The Russian northern grouping of forces’ heavy reliance on conscripts for the initial defense against the main Ukrainian thrust in Kursk starting in August is one reason the Ukrainians managed to advance so quickly along that axis. It’s an ominous sign for the Russians that their defensive efforts in Vesoloe apparently also depend on unprepared young men in their teens and early 20s.
If the Russians react to the Ukrainian attack on Vesoloe last week the same way they reacted to the wider Ukrainian invasion of Kursk last month, they may eventually redeploy some better-trained airborne forces to blunt the Ukrainian advance. The Khorne Group shrugged off this possibility. “Bring us more conscripts and paratroopers,” it taunted.
Aside from the Khorne Group, it’s unclear which Ukrainian units are involved in the fight for Vesoloe. It’s worth noting, however, that the Khorne Group’s videos of the Thursday breach seem to depict Turkish-made Kirpi armored trucks, which are popular with the Ukrainian marine corps. The 36th Marine Brigade is part of the main fight farther east in Kursk, so it’s possible the brigade is also behind the Vesoloe incursion.
Whichever brigade or brigades they’re facing in Vesoloe, the Russians are worried. Their local garrison reportedly includes a lot of young conscripts. By contrast, the invading Ukrainians appear to be battle-hardened volunteers backed by tanks, drones and warplanes. “Our contacts assess the situation as serious,” one Russian blogger noted.
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