A Ukrainian drone battalion commander says Russia is putting up a stronger fight in Kursk and is sending well-equipped soldiers to the region.
The commander in Ukraine’s 14th Regiment, who goes by the call sign Cold, told The Wall Street Journal his units struggled to fight off a force of 80 Russian troops earlier this week. Their attack followed a barrage of 21 glide bombs on the Ukrainian-held village.
“We’re paying a price, too,” he told the Journal.
The commander’s units were among the first to reach Kursk earlier this month, per the outlet.
They are now dug down in cellars north of the town of Sudzha, deploying reconnaissance and strike drones to assist Ukrainian forces in their advance, it said.
“We want to bring the war to their territory,” the commander told the Journal.
Since launching a surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, Ukraine says its forces have taken over 480 square miles of Russian territory and have been pushing deeper into Russia.
Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces were 22 miles into Russia.
The incursion caught Russia off guard, which has struggled to respond quickly and effectively to the attack, partly due to its complex military structures and a lack of contingency plans.
Earlier this week, the Journal reported that a Russian general had disbanded a group charged with protecting Kursk’s borders months before Ukraine’s surprise incursion — citing an unnamed official in Russia’s security services — leaving the border region vulnerable.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has continued its offensive, destroying at least two bridges in Kursk and taking out pontoon bridges before they can even be built.
However, Ukraine’s operations have slowed this week, with soldiers only making “marginal” advances on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said.
Cold told the Journal that Russia has redeployed well-equipped forces to the region, some with substantial battle experience.
From drone feeds, he said he could see how some Russian troops were fortifying themselves and setting up defensive positions along a newly drawn front line, anticipating a protracted conflict.
US officials told CNN last week that Russia appeared to be diverting thousands of troops from Ukraine into Kursk.
It remains unclear exactly how many soldiers Russia is redeploying to Kursk from the main 600-mile front line in eastern Ukraine.
In an update on Sunday, the Institute for the Study of War said that Russian redeployments from Ukraine to Kursk could weaken Russia’s ability to sustain offensive operations on the main front.
However, according to government sources close to the Russian Presidential Administration, Kursk may not be the Kremlin’s priority right now.
The sources told independent Russian outlet Meduza that the Kremlin is using propaganda to convince Russians to accept holding off on retaking Kursk until after an “inevitable” Ukrainian defeat in eastern Ukraine.
Due to the scale of the conflict, neither Russia nor Ukraine can win the war with a single, decisive campaign, the Institute for the Study of War said on Sunday.
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