Frontline report: Ukraine launches cross-border “counter-counter-offensive” towards Russia’s Glushkovo

16 September 2024. Today there are a lot of important updates from the Kursk direction in Russia.

Here, the Ukrainians initiated the next stage of the offensive with a powerful attack across the border, quickly approaching the town of Glushkovo.

Recognizing the imminent threat of losing Glushkovo, the Russians tried to establish logistics lines using pontoon bridges and the Korenevo-Glushkovo highway.

Forbes: Ukraine expands incursion into Russia with new thrust into Kursk Oblast

However, the Ukrainians had anticipated this move and swiftly targeted the reinforcements with ATACMS cluster warheads, effectively neutralizing the Russian efforts. In the Glushkovo district, the situation became highly volatile and perilous for the Russian forces facing intense Ukrainian pressure. Approximately three thousand Russian soldiers in the area have struggled to sustain logistical support for their defensive positions. The Glushkovo forces are essentially isolated from the rest of the Russian military, as crucial roads, particularly the Glushkovo-Korenevo highway, are under Ukrainian fire control. This left only the bridges across the Seym River as the sole logistical routes for the Russian forces in Glushkovo to maintain supply lines. Combat footage from the Zvannoe area on the Seym River shows a pontoon bridge being completely destroyed by a HIMARS missile with pinpoint accuracy. Another video from the same area depicts the destruction of Russian construction and engineering equipment on a traffic bridge at Zvannoe.

Ukrainian drone operators successfully targeted and destroyed equipment, including an excavator and a truck carrying construction materials, that were attempting to repair the bridge. The original uncensored combat footage of all operations can be found on Reporting From Ukraine's Telegram channel. Seeing how the use of bridges and pontoon crossings for maintenance of logistical flow is difficult, the Russian forces decided to launch a series of daring counterattacks with the goal of retaking the Korenevo-Glushkovo highway in an effort to restore ground connection to Glushkovo.

By acting swiftly, the Russians achieved a tactical surprise. Leveraging newly redeployed forces from eastern Ukraine, they quickly entered Snagost and immediately intensified their operations, launching assaults on Ukrainian positions in Vishnevka, Komarovka, Vnezapne, and Krasnooktyabrske. The Ukrainian command anticipated the Russian forces would launch an unblocking operation, so they had a predetermined course of action ready. Given that the main Russian objective was to unblock the Glushkovo forces and secure supply lines by road, the Ukrainians focused their FPV drone units on the area, targeting Russian assault units en route and transforming the road into a deadly corridor. Russian sources confirmed that, despite the seemingly improved logistics to Glushkovo, Ukrainian FPV drones strike Russian troops on the highway every five minutes, consistently destroying or disrupting large portions of reinforcements before they can arrive.

A squad of Russian fighters near Vishnevka, situated close to the highway, gathered in one location, leading to their swift destruction by a Ukrainian FPV drone.

As the Ukrainian forces meticulously disrupted and destroyed Russian reinforcements along the Seym River and the main highway, they set the stage for the next phase of their offensive in Kursk. A formidable assault group was assembled, comprising tanks, armored transport vehicles, and engineering vehicles.

Combat footage from the area reveals how a Ukrainian engineering vehicle demolished Russian dragon’s teeth fortifications at the border, clearing the path for Ukrainian stormtroopers and armored columns to advance.

Upon entering Russian territory, Ukrainian assault units advanced freely across the open fields, knowing the Russians had not had time to lay landmines. They then moved along the main road to Veseloe while Russian forces could only fire a few artillery shells, all of which fell far from their targets. Ukrainian forces soon reached the outskirts of Veseloe, which is now being stormed. The weak Russian response to the incursion highlights a severe lack of preparedness, resulting in a breakthrough of at least three kilometers. With only seven kilometers remaining to Glushkovo, Ukrainian forces are poised to strike at the Russians in Snagost.

In a desperate attempt to plug the gap and reinforce defenses, Russian troops tried to use the Seym River bridges to deploy soldiers under the cover of night. https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1834229921327075673/ Unfortunately, Ukrainian drone operators detected over a hundred Russian soldiers near the pontoon bridge and called in a HIMARS strike. The HIMARS missile, equipped with a cluster warhead, accurately struck multiple times, inflicting heavy casualties and forcing the survivors to trample over the bodies of their comrades in a frantic bid to save their own lives. The full combat footage of this operation can be found on our Telegram channel as well. Overall, the rapid advancement of Ukrainian forces in the Glushkovo region has used the Russian efforts to break the encirclement of Korenevo against them by outmaneuvering Russian strike force from the Veseloe area. This bold maneuver allowed Ukrainian forces to outflank the Russian units that had penetrated deep into Ukrainian-held territory, putting them at risk of encirclement. This development undermines the Russian objective of reestablishing logistical lines to Glushkovo and exposes significant vulnerabilities in their operational planning. The success of the Ukrainian strategy highlights a shift in the tactical balance, potentially leading to a major setback for Russian forces and altering the broader dynamics of the conflict in favor of Ukraine.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.