After the devastating destruction of an entire Russian column, resulting in the death of an entire battalion of three to four companies of Russian reserves, Ukraine has not only prevented Russia from reclaiming its lost territory but has expanded its control over Suzhda, the site of the Suzhda gas terminal.

In a recent video published by Ukrainians, Ukrainians film a ride through the city’s center, indicating that the entire village’s city is under Ukrainian control. Russian military bloggers such as @rybar_force have confirmed these Ukrainian advances on Suzhda. The update from 1:00PM differs markedly from that of 7:00PM, indicating that within the span of less than six hours Ukrainians “improved their positions” in Suzhda.

These images are from the same day, August 12th, 2024. In the comparison of the sub-battle over Suzhda, Ukraine’s forces advanced in the eastern quarter of Suzhda, claiming control over Makhnovka, pushing the Russians away from Suzhda’s city center. The western quarter witnessed the removal of Russians from Knyazhniy. A path through Myrniy, previously under Russian control, appears to have been laid for Ukrainians. (The full image for these updates is below.)

Among the members of the community following the fall of Suzhda, pro-NATO bloggers have sought to exaggerate the significance of Ukraine’s control over a key railway station in Moscow’s Railroad network. Access to the station allegedly provides Ukrainians with the power to monitor passively the ‘Defect Detectors.’ The seizure of the railway station in Suzhda, however, is not necessarily a major gain.

Relinquishing control over access to a station in Moscow’s Railroad will likely not be considered a major bargaining chip at the negotiating table, since the network for defect detectors is not quantifiable. If it is, its relative value is negligible, since the network can be disconnected, despite whatever costs.

The value could be quantified on the basis of the amount of money the station generates but that amount is incomparably smaller than the amount the gas terminal generates. It doesn’t really make sense to make the comparison. The sensors are passive. Although they supply a certain kind of data, such as data about defects, these data have to be actualized in coordination with satellite imagery to be effective in sabotage operations. It is a non-strategic, comparatively weak, valueless object in comparison to the Suzhda gas terminal, over whose area the Ukrainians have expanded control.

Given the differences of opinions that have emerged within Russia’s ruling elite over the response, plan, or understanding of the Kursk crisis, Putin has decided to attribute to the Kursk operation a significance over and beyond that of any of the other fronts. This represents a major victory for Kyiv, since part of the Kursk operation rested on a design to sow division within Putin’s regime, distracting it from its priorities in the Donbas. To the extent that Russia has shifted its focus away from the Donbas to Kursk, Putin’s decision may be considered a successful result of Kyiv’s Kursk operation.

Although Moscow has shifted the focus of its attention away from the Donbas to Kursk, Russians continue to advance on all fronts in the Donbas. Ukraine’s most prolific bloggers, such as @DeepStateUA, have fallen silent, since the Kursk operation began, posting few to no updates on either the Kursk salient or the Donbas.

There are reports that Ukrainians have regained control of portions of Ukraine’s village in the Toretsk direction, the village of Niu–York in the Donetsk region but these reports are apparently an attempt to cover up the village’s fall. The Kyiv Independent, for instance, published an article denying that “that Russia fully captured the village of Niu–York in Donetsk Oblast, saying that ‘heavy fighting continues’ there.”[1] The fall of Niu–York represents the second to last Ukrainian pre-war defensive fortifications to fall in the Donbas, indicating that Ukraine’s major strongholds continue to fall throughout that area.

[1] – [“Kyiv denies Russian claims of capturing Niu-York in Donetsk Oblast,” Kyiv Independent, August 6th, 2024]