Russia Avenges Rylsk in Gir’i


Ukrainain forces have attempted to advance eastward into Gir’i in an efforto to push into Belitsa. Ukraine’s attempt to expand the lines beyond Sudzha to Gir’i, however, failed. In the most recent footage released to the Internet by military bloggers covering the Kursk crisis, Russian FPV drones, evidently controlled by a fiber optic cable much like the famous TOW missiles, struck more than 12 Ukrainian units of armor, causing the Ukrainian column to disperse. The vast majority of the vehicles the Russians targeted went up in flames almost immediately upon impact.

The Russians have captured multiple units of abandoned Ukrainian armor. In at least of of the videos uploaded online, Russians recorded the capture of an M1126 Stryke Infantry Fighting Vehicle that Russia’s 810-я отдельная гвардейская бригада морской пехоты towed from the fields of Kursk.

In Gir’i itself the Russians appear to have captured another unit of Ukrainian armor. According to @EjShahid, one of the military bloggers covering the war, “Російські військові лутають трофейний український БТР-4Е в Гир’ях, Курська область.” [1] On the vehicle’s hull is the triangle mark, the operational sign for Ukraine’s Kursk operation.

According to the most recent reports, a Ukrainian Stugna-P struck a Russian vehicle. A Ka-52 destroyed a pair of Msta-S howitzers in an act of friendly fire, underscoring the heightened state of disarray, chaos or lack of coordination still rampant in Russia’s command and control in the Kursk region.

Gir’i is itself east of Sudzha where the Ukrainians have dug in. Satellite imagery of the Suhdzha gas terminal, however, appears to show multiple layers of damage. It is unclear what damage has been caused or by whom at this particular moment. Nonetheless, the most recent reports indicate that Kyiv continues to hold the geopolitically significant military objective, despite Russian counterattacks in and around Sudzha, especially in such places as Gir’i.

The battles are intense. In at least one of the videos uploaded by Ukrainian Special Operation Forces, one of the Ukrainian SOF operators can be seen hitting a Russian truck with a US-made M72 LAW portable anti-armor weapon, causing the truck to blow up. The ambush, which occurred along one of the roads in Kursk, witnessed combat within 100 to 500 meters. [2]

In a stunning reversal of fortunes, Al-Arabiya, which had published article after article, month after month, detailing Russia’s capture of territory in the Donbas, published an article claiming that Ukraine seized more than a 1000 square kilometers in the Kursk region. Entitled: “أوكرانيا: سيطرنا على ألف كيلومتر مربع من كورسك الروسية,” the article details how Russia lost 28 settlements as a result of the Kursk offensive.

In an example of the embarrassment the Kursk crisis is causing the ruling elite in Russia, Ukrainian troops are said to have advanced no less than 100 miles from Dmitry Medvedev’s family estate in Manturovo (Kursk region). Photos of the family estate show a large mansion, multiple detached quarters, a basketball court, a pool, all fenced in with hedgerows.

[1] – [@EjShahid:status/1823385202602745945]

[2] – [@ua_regteam: 112]