A New Kursk Offensive and Other Matters

Ukraine launched a new offensive in the Kursk Oblast. I must remind you that this is inside Russia, and it took the Russians by surprise again. So first, the situation as of this afternoon, and no, it’s not entirely clear:

The situation, as far as we can analyze it based on geolocated footage, is now like this. Ukraine advanced to the very outskirts of Berdin and Novosotnitskii, entered it, but it is not yet clear if there is a foothold. Active fighting is reported. It doesn’t look like Ukraine is fully committing, yet.

Now, through Volyamedia, we have a more expansive view of this. And it seems Ukraine has met success. I keep both posts as if they were one and two because they provide a good picture of the situation. They also touch on how ineffective North Korean troops have been. Suffice it to say there have been a few friendly fire incidents where North Korean soldiers have killed Russians:

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ offensive in the Kursk region: what is known by the evening of the first day

On the morning of January 5, Ukrainian mechanized units began advancing in several directions on their eastern flank in the Kursk region. At the same time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ electronic warfare systems disabled communications and, at least for a time, “grounded” Russian drones (except for those on fiber optics), and also disrupted the work of Russian aviation (including making it impossible to use aerial bombs from the UMPK). In the morning, Russian FPV drone operators could only control their “birds” by holding them directly above the operator, which allowed them to film the advancing troops, but not to hit them.

There are no reports from the area, but according to the stories of Russian soldiers who were in Lgov and just south of Kursk in the morning and at about 1 p.m. local time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces fought in the following settlements: Novocherkassky, Rozgrebli, Berdin, Pushkarnoye, Biryukovka and were advancing towards Bolshoye Soldatskoye, one of the main Russian supply and command hubs on the eastern flank. It is unknown who controls these settlements now, so they are…