‘Catastrophic.’ With Mines, Drones, Artillery And Tanks, Ukrainian Troops Wreck 90 Russian Vehicles Across Four Square Miles Of Kursk.
Russia’s long offensive is faltering.
David Axe | Dec 7, 2024 | 04:41pm ESTA four-square-mile patch of Kursk Oblast in western Russia is a graveyard for Russian vehicles—and a harbinger of a looming catastrophe for the Kremlin as its yearlong offensive in Ukraine begins to falter.
Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian marine corps drone operator supporting the 20,000-strong Ukrainian force that has held a 20-by-12-mile salient in Kursk since August, tallied around 90 wrecked and abandoned Russian vehicles just in his two-by-two-mile sector on the northwest edge of the salient.
That’s an entire brigade’s worth of vehicles. Ukrainian losses in the same sector have been much lighter: just 20 or so.
A four-to-one loss ratio in favor of Ukraine isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s only slightly higher than the overall 3:1 loss ratio for the whole 34-month wider war on Ukraine: 14,500 destroyed Russian vehicles against 5,200 destroyed Ukrainian vehicles.
What’s notable, and ominous for the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is when and where the Russian armed forces lost all those vehicles. They’re what the Russians have left behind in two waves of unsuccessful attacks on the Ukrainian salient in Kursk over a period of six weeks starting in early November.
A year after Ukraine’s summer 2023 counteroffensive ground to a halt and Russia launched its own new offensive, Kursk has arguably become the locus of the fighting—although, to be clear, fierce battles continue to rage in and around Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Vovchansk, Kurakhove, Vuhledar and other cities and towns in eastern Ukraine.
Putin has given his forces until February to eliminate the Ukrainian salient in Kursk, and for good reason. . . .
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/12/07/catastrophic-with-mines-drones-artillery-and-tanks-ukrainian-troops-wreck-90-russian-vehicles-in-four-square-miles-of-kursk/
