While Ukraine is continuing its advances in the Kursk region and taking steps to consolidate the ongoing operations on Russian soil, questions arose on whether Moscow is pulling its forces out of Ukraine to reinforce its defences.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile Ukraine is continuing its advances in the Kursk region and taking steps to consolidate and coordinate the ongoing operations on Russian soil, questions arose whether Moscow is pulling its forces out of Ukraine in order to reinforce its defences.
After initial disarray and disorganisation, Russian forces have deployed in greater force to the region, likely from elsewhere along the contact line, the UK Defence Ministry said on X.
Most certainly, these elements are not coming from the prioritised axis in the east of Ukraine, where Russians are maintaining their relatively high offensive tempo, specifically around its primary target — the Donetsk region.
In this area, Moscow forces are continuing to pursue a tactical encirclement of Ukrainian forces southeast of Pokrovsk, according to the latest geolocated footage.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assesses that Russian forces likely seized Orlivka (around 35 km from Pokrovsk) and Zhelanne (some 20 km from Pokrovsk).
Russian military command claimed that they have gotten even closer to Pokrovsk — an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian forces that supports their operations in the Donetsk region.
The military administration of the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region on 15 August called on residents to evacuate immediately, as the Russian army was about 10 km from the city's outskirts.
Russia has begun moving certain elements from Ukraine to respond to the situation in the Kursk region, according to the ISW, but the types of units that are redeploying and where they are redeploying from is a strong indicator that the Russian military command is still prioritising ongoing offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.
The ISW has not seen "reports in the open source that the Russian military command is redeploying entire brigades from Ukraine to Kursk region but has observed reports of elements of Russian regiments redeploying to the area," the think tank said on Thursday.
Ukraine's best versus Russian conscripts
In late July, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow began concentrating its efforts in the east, "throwing everything they have" in the Pokrovsk direction after the Kharkiv offensive failed.
The question is, which elements are those, and where exactly can Moscow get better-trained units to reinforce the defences in Kursk?
Ukraine's sent there some of its best battle-hardened forces, who, in many cases, have been met across the border by Russian conscripts.
All men in Russia are required to serve one year of compulsory military service. It usually runs two drafts yearly — one in spring and one in autumn — conscripting well over 100,000 young men each time.
Unlike professional soldiers, conscripts receive very limited training before they are sent to their posts. Russian law strictly prohibits their deployment overseas, and they are not meant to participate in combat operations.
A petitionis now being shared by the mothers of the conscripts stationed in the Kursk area, who are calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to remove their children from there.
ADVERTISEMENT"Save the lives of soldiers who are not prepared for military action. You promised the parents that they would not participate in hostilities," it stated.
There are no calls to stop Russia's war in Ukraine, only to pull the young conscripts from the Kursk area.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Putin promised that the conscripts would not be involved in the combat. Many of them have been taken prisoners of war by Ukrainian troops.
On Thursday, an official from Ukraine's domestic security service, the SBU, said its special forces alone had captured 102 Russian soldiers of the 488th Motorised Rifle Regiment and the Chechen Akhmat unit in the Kursk region.
ADVERTISEMENTThe capture of Russian prisoners, including the conscripts, will likely help Kyiv reiterate its calls and efforts to bring back thousands of its own civilians and soldiers, including the defenders of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
More than two years since the siege of the Azov Sea coastal city, hundreds of the stronghold's defenders remain in captivity in Russia with no information about their condition or whereabouts.