Russians destroy bridges in Kursk region to block 10,000 Ukrainian troops - Forbes
The 10,000-strong Ukrainian garrison in the Kursk region of western Russia is in a critical situation. Sustained attacks by elite Russian drones have destroyed hundreds of vehicles on the main road between Kursk and the town of Sudzha, a key defence point for the Ukrainian advance in the region. Russia also destroys bridges.
According to Censor.NET, Forbes writes about this.
Taking advantage of the deteriorating supply of the Ukrainian "Siversk" operational and tactical group, the much larger Russian and North Korean forces in Kursk have intensified their three-month counter-offensive.
Ukrainian brigades on the northern edge of the bulge are retreating towards Sudzha, where they have recently been able to repel a Russian breakthrough attempt through an old gas pipeline.
This retreat could precede a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the Kursk region and a return to safer areas of northern Ukraine.
Russian forces are attempting to block any retreat routes, despite attacks by Ukrainian aircraft, including MiG-29s.
"The enemy is destroying bridges in Kursk Oblast and along the international border, trying to hinder the movement of the Siversk Operational Tactical Group from exiting Kursk Oblast into Ukraine," the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies warned.
The Siverskyi OTG had some success in early February, but the situation changed dramatically after the arrival of the Russian "Rubicon" Centre for Advanced Unmanned Systems in the second half of the month.
"Rubicon employs advanced drone tactics," independent analyst Andrew Perpetua explained. Worse, its explosive first-person-view drones seem to fly right through Ukrainian radio jamming.
A series of Russian drone strikes on the road to Sudzha signaled the possible end of the seven-month-long Ukrainian invasion of Kursk region.
"The day you saw this should’ve been the day you started worrying about Kursk," Perpetua wrote.
Russia's drone campaign in Kursk region coincided with US President Donald Trump's decision to suspend further aid to Ukraine and to end intelligence sharing between the US and Ukraine.
Ukraine's European allies can partially compensate for the loss of American information support, but this process will take time. Russia, in turn, is actively using the situation to its advantage.
"The temporal correlation between the suspension of U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine and the start of Russia's collapse of the Ukrainian Kursk salient is noteworthy," the Institute for the Study of War pointed out.
