Day 1070
On 27 January, there were many important updates from the Kursk direction. Here, the Russians launched a continued effort in the southern part of the western sector, with the Ukrainians turning old Russian fortifications against them, creating brutal kill zones for Russian armor. To avoid a drawn-out and costly clearing operation, Ukrainians even feinted a weakness, luring the surviving Russian soldiers into a small forest where HIMARS missiles could rain down fire on them.
The goal of the Russian forces in this area is to take control of the village of Sverdlikovo, which could completely alter the dynamics of the Kursk salient. As Sverdlikovo is a key position in the outer ring of Suja’s defenses, taking control of the settlement would allow Russians to open up direct assaults on the main Ukrainian base of operations in Kursk.
Russians recently pushed Ukrainians out of Nizhnyi Klin after over a month of intense fighting, which then secured the right flank against possible Ukrainian counter attacks. The main advantage of the Russian forces in this area is the fact that they can accumulate enough forces to achieve numerical superiority, enabled by the many settlements and forests to the north that they now control.
The hardened Koronevskoye-Sudza road allows the Russian mechanized units to move at full speed to dismount their infantry at Sverdlikovo in rapid succession.
If we take a look at the topographic map, we can see that the terrain elevation in the area around this road is relatively even, allowing Russian forces to move along it without the risk of driving into a crossfire.
However, as Russian assault groups get closer to Ukrainian lines, they come within range of Ukrainians on the hillside to the south, where Ukrainians positioned ATGM positions and drone launching pads. This area is also where Ukrainians, in the initial stages of the Kursk incursion, took control of the Russian defense lines meant to defend the border against Ukrainian assaults.
This defense line consists of a vast network of trenches, bunkers, various underground facilities, and Dragon Steel anti-tank fortifications. Ukrainians later also moved engineering equipment into Kursk to further fortify the pre-existing defenses and reorient them to defend against Russian assaults from the north instead. This allows Ukrainians to sit out Russian artillery shelling and aerial bombardments in relative safety without suffering significant losses during this time.
The Dragon 16th fortifications also forced the Russians into a narrow choke point, which was already zeroed in by Ukrainian artillery, drones, and anti-tank systems, forming a kill zone. Combat footage reveals how Russian mechanized formations moved along the road towards the gap in the Dragon Steel fortifications.
As Ukrainians started hitting these vehicles with artillery, drones, ATGMs, and landmines, the wrecks of destroyed armored vehicles quickly piled up, forcing the following vehicles to slow down to maneuver around them. This allowed the Ukrainian fire to become even more precise as observation drones continue to correct their fire.
Russians even tried sending engineering vehicles of their own to try and move the obstacles out of the way, but they only became a priority target for Ukrainians as they continue to devastate any Russian assault group driving over the road. As the Koronevskoye-Sudza road quickly turned into a road of death, a number of Russian soldiers managed to survive and scatter into various tree lines in the area.
To avoid a lengthy clearing operation, Ukrainians lured and funneled these Russian survivors into a small forest near Sverdlikovo, which they had purposefully left lightly defended. As the Russian soldiers poured in, in the hopes of accumulating and continuing their assault, Ukrainians unleashed a devastating HIMARS barrage, carpet bombing the forest with cluster munitions in multiple strikes, eliminating the threat of the Russian infantry in one fell swoop.
Overall, the Ukrainians organized a defense in depth in anticipation of the Russian assaults, luring both Russian vehicles and infantry into brutal kill zones. The assaults towards Sverdlikovo continued to be one of the most massive Russian mechanized efforts in the Kursk direction and have resulted in hundreds of Russian soldiers killed and over three dozen destroyed armored vehicles littering the road, only further contributing to the ever-depleting Russian armored reserve.
In our daily 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.
Read also:
- Frontline report: Russian four-man units face infrastructure challenge at Pokrovsk
- Frontline report: Russian tanks trapped in Kursk as dragon’s teeth bite back
- Frontline report: Ukrainian counterattack exposes Russian vulnerabilities near Pokrovsk
- Frontline report: Russians lose 400-km radar in Ukrainian drone strike spree
