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It’s been a bad week for Kursk and a good one for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He’s been blowing up key bridges in the Russian state one after another. Contrary to the Russian propaganda, the local citizenry has been getting along better with the Ukrainian occupiers than they did with Russian troops who passed through earlier. Many of them are sympathetic to the cause and don’t mind swapping citizenship, as long as the soldiers are polite about it.
Solid hold on Kursk
Ukraine has a solid hold on the Kursk region and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s grip around the throat of Mother Russia is “getting stronger.” On Sunday, August 18, his troops vaporized about 100 feet from a key bridge. That’s the second in a row.
Fighting continues unabated with reports coming in that “Ukraine has been inching forward since launching its surprise cross-border incursion last week.”
The biggest challenge to the Ukrainians are the Russian forces behind them to the east in their territory. They’re hoping to turn that situation to their advantage by getting behind retreating Russians as they move back in to repel the invader.
Ukrainian Air Force releases footage of air strike on a bridge over the River Seym in Kursk Oblast. They didn’t name it, but it’s the one at Zvannoye. It looks to be seriously damaged, if not destroyed. Waiting now for news of bridge at Karyzh. pic.twitter.com/rLXWPG3wbV
— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) August 18, 2024
Meanwhile, “the Kursk offensive has left Russia struggling to shore up its own territory.”
Kyiv is trying to get as much bang as they can for their buck. They have “multiple goals with the assault, from boosting morale after a torrid few months to stretching Russia’s resources.”
Vlad understands the Kursk situation completely. He made a tour of occupied land to talk to local politicians and assure them the Ukrainians are only visiting for a short while.
A fair negotiation
Vladimir Putin has been acting like it’s no big deal that Ukraine took a huge chunk of Russian territory in Kursk. They just want better bargaining position in negotiations, he shrugged. That’s something Zelenskyy agrees with.
One of his aides told the press the point of the incursion is “ensuring a ‘fair‘ negotiation process.”
Their position at the bargaining table gets better all the time. Zelenskyy’s foothold of Kyiv’s presence in Kursk is “getting stronger” and “now we are reinforcing our positions,” he told the public on TV.
Footage of a Ukrainian JDAM air bombing of a bridge near the village of Zvanne in the Kursk region. pic.twitter.com/4zkHagGztO
— Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 (@jurgen_nauditt) August 18, 2024
They broke the Russian supply chain and crippled “Moscow’s logistical capabilities” by suddenly closing “another bridge over the Seym river” with “precision air strikes.”
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykolaiv Oleshchuk was proud to show his home movies “in a post on social media that included a video showing plumes of smoke engulfing parts of the bridge.”
Their operation in Kursk “significantly affects the course of combat operations” for the Russians. They used our gear to accomplish it. “Russia’s foreign ministry said Ukraine had used Western rockets to carry out that attack, which were likely U.S.-made HIMARS.“
