Ukrainian Paratroopers Surround Russian Troops In Kursk

The Ukrainians continue to plan - and execute - daring, tactically and strategically effective assaults which cause maximum damage to the Russian units attempting to locate them, let alone fight them. JL

David Axe reports in Forbes:

Attacking between Russian positions on the bleeding edge of Ukraine’s two-week-old invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, a Ukrainian air assault brigade has cut off and surrounded a Russian formation. In assaulting Malya Loknya, the 95th Air Assault Brigade “bypassed positions between this village and Russkiy Porechny, cut the road between them, and  took units of the 18th Motor Rifle Division into an operational encirclement.” 

Allegedly attacking between Russian positions on the bleeding edge of Ukraine’s two-week-old invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, a Ukrainian air assault brigade has reportedly cut off and surrounded a Russian formation—and inspired excited chatter on social media.

 

The primary source for the claim is Yuriy Podolyak, a popular Russian propagandist. While propagandists aren’t normally known for their truthfulness and reliability, it’s worth paying attention when they relay bad news about their clients.

Recent changes along the front line in Kursk “are not in our favor,” Podolyak wrote on Tuesday. Elements of the Ukrainian 95th Air Assault Brigade are “trying to take control of Malya Loknya,” eight miles north of the town of Sudzha, the locus of the Ukrainian invasion.

In assaulting Malya Loknya, the 95th Air Assault Brigade “bypassed our positions between this village and Russkiy Porechny, cut the road between them, and thus took units of the 18th Motor Rifle Division into an operational encirclement,” Podolyak claimed.

There is evidence the 95th Air Assault Brigade is in Malya Loknya. A Ukrainian drone tracked one of the brigade’s German-made Marder fighting vehicles firing on Russian positions in the village on Monday. “The enemy suffered significant losses in manpower, equipment and other material resources,” the Ukrainian air assault forces reported.

 

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the Russian 18th Motor Rifle Division is surrounded in Malya Loknya. Battlefield encirclement can mean disaster for the surrounded troops—but executing an encirclement is difficult for the attackers, as it requires them to first break through enemy lines and then close the circle, fast.

 

It’s not for no reason that true encirclements—“cauldrons,” the Russians and Ukrainians call them—have been fairly rare in Russia’s 29-month wider war on Ukraine. There have been numerous examples of surrounded troops slipping out of a cauldron before the enemy can overrun it.

Two battalions from the Ukrainian 31st Mechanized Brigade—potentially hundreds of troops in all—were briefly surrounded near Prohres in eastern Ukraine back in July.

Rather than waiting for rescue, the battalions decided to fight their way out. “With the help of coordinated actions of artillery, air reconnaissance and related forces ... the guys from the 1st and 3rd Battalions were able to break out of the encirclement in full force,” Ukrainian analysis group Deep State reported.

Podolyak, for one, expected the supposed cauldron full of Russian troops in Malya Loknya to resolve by Wednesday. “The battle is very tough,” he wrote. “Our aviation, artillery [and] UAVs are working. But even this has not repelled the enemy yet.”

“I don't think the situation will clear up before morning.”