Today, the biggest news comes from the Kursk direction. Here, Russian forces, after falling short of their operational goals, decided to go all-in in the most massive mechanized assault to secure a foothold in Malaya Loknya. As the core of Ukrainian defenses held strong in the face of the Russian onslaught, Ukrainians are grinding down Russian offensive capabilities, pushing them ever closer to complete culmination.
The goal of the Russians was to try once again to approach Malaya Loknya by establishing a foothold in the settlement of Viktorovka. Since the previous Russian attempts at taking Malaya Loknya with frontal assaults failed, they adjusted their approach and tried to attack it from the south. This way, they can cut off the Ukrainian forces in Malaya Loknya by establishing fire control over the main supply road, undermining the Ukrainian defensive operation. By establishing a presence in Viktorovka, the Russian forces could also subsequently assault Malaya Loknya since it is only administratively separate from Viktorovka as both settlements are agglomerated.
Ukrainians exploit terrain advantage and advanced weaponry
To achieve this, the Russians launched a series of six massive combined assault waves with a total of 50 vehicles and hundreds of soldiers engaged, launching wave after wave until they accumulated enough soldiers in Viktorovka from the survivors of the attacks. The main advantage of the Russian forces in this area was the road and frozen ground in the fields, which allowed Russians to maneuver more rapidly, increasing the time Ukrainians had to respond to the Russian attacks. The significant number of armored vehicles also gave Russians a distinct advantage in firepower, allowing the Russian stormtroopers to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.
However, let’s look at the topographic map. We can see that the main Ukrainian positions in Malaya Loknya are at a higher elevation, allowing them to observe and detect Russian movements along the road. This means that the Ukrainian forces in Malaya Loknya can enforce fire control over the Russian mechanized units using anti-tank missiles and FPV drones to target Russian vehicles. Simultaneously, the Ukrainians placed landmines across the road to Viktorovka, which could disable the lead vehicle and halt the entire armored column with it.
Combat footage from the area reveals the demise of the Russian mechanized assault unit sent to Viktorovka. The lead vehicle of each column was effectively disabled by landmines or FPV drones, which stopped each vehicle behind it. Scared of becoming sitting ducks for Ukrainian artillery, the Russian soldiers immediately dismounted from their BMPs once they stopped driving and attempted to take cover in nearby trenches and dugouts. This effectively isolated the Russian soldiers as they became pinned down by Ukrainian small arms fire from the settlements, making them easy targets for Ukrainian drone operators dropping grenades directly from above.
High casualties mar Russian territorial gains
However, due to the massive scale of these attacks, Russians have been able to advance and clear out the gray zone within the villages of Leonidovo and the eastern part of Novoivanovka. However, it is important to note that the newly captured Russian ground mainly consists of just fields, with the only controlling factor being Novоivanovka and Leonidovo. Additionally, Ukrainians only maintained a limited presence here due to the settlements already being reduced to ruins in previous assaults.
Most importantly, these gains did not come without a cost, as Russians lost nearly a full mechanized company in one day without achieving their goal of taking Viktovka and only taking swaths of fields. Recently released footage shows Russian soldiers filming as they move along their newly captured terrain, revealing a large number of dead Russian soldiers along the road and in the field, already slowly becoming buried in the snow.
Overall, the Russians launched a poorly organized attack along a narrow area of a road, bunching up their armored formations and turning them into sitting ducks once the lead vehicles were disabled, allowing Ukrainians to inflict massive casualties despite the lost terrain. While the Russians have made significant gains in the western part of the salient, Ukrainians have ground down the Russian and North Korean combat capabilities over several weeks. While Russians are only now getting closer to the core of the Ukrainian salient where Ukrainian logistics are stronger and defenses are more robust.
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.
