Various analysts have no doubt that the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk border region in Russia is a major offensive. Zaporizhia (in the south of Ukraine) and Bakmut (in the east of the country).
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On the seventh day of the Ukrainian offensive on Russian territory, General Dominique Trinquant confirms that the attack, which took the world by surprise, was “not a diversion, but a real attack”.
“This is the exact opposite of the attack we expected a year ago, which hit well-established defenses by the Russians in Ukraine,” he told French radio station Sud in a phone interview. “This is an attack in Russia, where there are very few defenses, so this is the effect of surprise at play and this, at this moment, I say at this moment – we will have to see what happens in the days. What is coming – the Russians cannot control it.”
Unlike other incursions by pro-Kiev Russian forces in the Belgorod region in May 2023 – this time, the international relations expert adds, “the Ukrainians have “held the means by sending two very well-armored troops equipped with heavy anti-aircraft defenses”.
These are the observations of writer and ex-military officer Guillaume Ancel that go in the same direction.
The analyst wrote on his blog Do not sufferLast Friday, “Ukrainians learned a lot from their defeat in 2023”.
“They’ve advanced in combined arms warfare (which is combining tanks, artillery, infantry, electronic warfare and drones in this case) and how much they’ve learned from the failure of the 2023 counteroffensive to “definitely” eliminate a Russian army waiting for them,” he explained.
AFP
This photo taken on August 12, 2024 shows a Ukrainian military armored vehicle. In the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, another military vehicle was fired upon in the Sumy region near the Russian border.
Speed and surprise
In the winter of 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky began seeking Western support for a military offensive, including, among other things, NATO-standard assault tanks.
These requests for military equipment were made in preparation for a Ukrainian counteroffensive aimed at liberating Russian-occupied areas in the south of the country in the Donbass and finally in Crimea.
Many analysts predict a scenario in which the Ukrainian army attempts a breakthrough on the Zaporizhia front towards the Sea of Azov with the aim of cutting Russian troops in half and stripping Crimea of its bridgehead of supplies.
However, the Western countries were not the only ones considering this situation: the Russian army was unable to break through the Ukrainians by forming three lines of defense for a long time for this attack.
In this new offensive in the Kursk region, the Ukrainians surprised not only the Russian leaders and troops on the border, but also the West.
“This defensive line [entre la Russie et l’Ukraine] The infiltration attempt was overrun quickly mainly because the Russian military did not detect it quickly enough,” said Mr. Ansel explained. “The Ukrainians clearly blindsided the Russians in preparation and infiltration into Russian territory.”
“Ukrainian forces that entered Russian territory should have been bombarded very quickly by planes and helicopters, which would obviously intervene quickly in this type of situation. But the Ukrainians carried surface-to-air artillery, including portable Stinger-type missiles (they have a range of about 4 km
“Instead of facing an invasion of Russian volunteers, Putin’s army gradually realized the importance of this Ukrainian operation and lost clear time in the face of a well-equipped force and his movements,” he added in his post.
