Tag: russia

The fuse has been burning slowly, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s risky August invasion of Russia’s Kursk region is about to blow up in his face in spectacular fashion — as thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are suddenly in imminent peril of being encircled, according to open source intelligence analysts. The crisis comes as Zelensky is under increasing US pressure to reach a negotiated end to the war — and a loss of captured Russian territory promises to make his already-deteriorated bargaining position even weaker. 

According to DeepStateMAP.live, an interactive map of the war run by Ukrainian military bloggers, their country’s forces in Kursk are nearly cleaved into two, with roughly three-quarters of Ukraine’s forces in Russia almost entirely surrounded on Friday. Their last connection between the two forces was a kilometer long and under 500 meters wide at its thinnest section. 

Black Bird Group military analyst Pasi Paroinen summed up the state of affairs for Reuters: 

“The situation (for Ukraine in Kursk) is very bad. Now there is not much left until Ukrainian forces will either be encircled or forced to withdraw. And withdrawal would mean running a dangerous gauntlet, where the forces would be constantly threatened by Russian drones and artillery.” 

Ukraine’s Kursk gambit, which surprised the world, was intended to stall Russia’s steady advances in eastern Ukraine, with hopes that Russia would be forced to engage in a major redeployment of forces to deal with the capture of Russian territory. Ukraine’s hold on the territory was also seen as a bargaining chip for Zelensky as the war now seems destined for a negotiated end. Not only does that chip appear to be vanishing, Putin could end up with a some new chips of its own — as Russia may soon have thousands more Ukrainian prisoners of war among its assets.  

In late February, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had regained control of 64% of Kursk territory initially seized by Ukraine. Kiev’s cross-border offensive started in early August 2024 and has managed to control dozens of towns and villages and hundreds of square kilometers of territory. That accomplishment has reportedly been aided by thousands of North Korean soldiers, with reports that one to three thousand more were being sent in February. North Korea has denied its soldiers are fighting in the war.  

The New York Times reports that Russia is on the brink of a major victory in Kursk thanks to the coordinated work of North Korean troops and Russian drone units, advancing with the aid of intense Russian artillery and air bombardment. Ukrainian soldiers report an overwhelming concentration of new, fiber-optic drones that are controlled by an ultrathin cable rather than radio signals that are vulnerable to electronic jamming.

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Officials belonging to Vladimir Putin’s political party have been found gifting meat grinders to the mothers of fallen soldiers in Ukraine.

According to The Moscow Times, officials from the United Russia party have visited the homes of grieving mothers and presented them with meat grinders.

The report explains:

The ruling United Russia party in Russia’s northern Murmansk region has sparked controversy after gifting meat grinders to the mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine.

The kitchen appliance has become a grim symbol of the Russian military’s high-casualty assaults in the Ukraine war. The Wagner mercenary group had previously awarded “Bakhmut Meat Grinder” medals to its fighters.

United Russia’s local chapter in the town of Polyarnye Zori included meat grinders in gift packages to mothers whose sons died in the war, according to photos published on the party’s social media account Wednesday.

However, United Russia’s Murmansk chapter pushed back against the widespread criticism of their choice as gifts, calling the attacks “inhumane and provocative” and suggesting the mothers had requested the meat grinders as gifts.

“The meat grinder was not part of the standard gift set, but one woman asked for it, and of course [party members] could not refuse her,” said Mayor Maxim Chengayev.

The party later released a video of one of the mothers thanking officials for the gift.

“I wanted to buy it for myself, but you gifted me one just in time,” the woman said on camera. “I asked you for it, in principle.”

The reports come as President Trump pushes both Ukraine and Russia to go to the negotiating table with a view to try and bring about a long and lasting peace to the troubled region.

The term “meat grinder” has come to define the brutal, high-casualty battles of the Russia-Ukraine war, particularly in Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

The result is a slow, grinding war of attrition, with massive losses on both sides and minimal territorial gains more reminiscent of trench warfare than modern combat.

According to a recent analysis by the BBC, at least 95,000 Russians have lost their lives since the war broke out in February 2022, while hundreds of thousands have been wounded.

However, these figures are only estimates, and the actual number could be much higher.

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The Ukrainian armed forces (AFU) infamously made an incursion last year into Russia proper in the territory of Kursk. The attack was an attempt to draw Russian forces away from their mission in Donbass and stop the loss of Ukrainian territory to Russian troops.

The effort entailed many foreign mercenary troops, which were videotaped going into Kursk.

Now reports from the region declare Russian forces are about to ‘cut off’ and encircle Kyiv’s forces, forcing a withdrawal to prevent further destruction of the army.

The battlefield situation in Kursk has taken a dramatic turn as Russian forces intensify their offensive, threatening to encircle up to 10,000 Ukrainian troops.

This collapse could be Zelensky’s worst military disaster yet, as his last leverage in negotiations with Russia evaporates before his eyes. If Russian forces succeed in cutting off the final escape route, thousands of Ukrainian troops could be trapped, forcing either surrender or destruction.

Ukraine denies this is happening.

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