Russian local authorities and Defence Ministry report different versions of events in Kursk Oblast – ISW

Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Screenshot: Google Maps

Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, and several Russian military bloggers have reported that fighting is continuing in the border areas of the Sudzha and Korenevoy districts of Kursk Oblast. This information, however, contradicts reports from the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which say they have repelled the raids.

Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

Details: Russian sources claimed that on 6 August, Ukrainian forces executed a series of incursions into Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Both the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on the same day that Russian border troops, along with FSB officers, repelled several Ukrainian raids, which involved a battalion-sized force of tanks and armoured vehicles.

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According to these claims, Ukrainian forces were advancing towards Russian positions near Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshnya in Kursk Oblast, located northwest of the Ukrainian city of Sumy and along the Russian-Ukrainian frontier. Geolocated footage released on 6 August showed damaged and abandoned armoured vehicles approximately seven kilometres north of the international border, west of Lyubimovka in Kursk Oblast. Russian sources maintained that these vehicles belonged to Ukraine, though the ISW could not determine if the armoured vehicles were Russian, Ukrainian, or both.

Russian military bloggers further claimed that Ukrainian forces had attacked from two different directions: one from the Sudzha checkpoint and another from the village of Nove in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast, moving towards Nikolayevo-Darino in Russia’s Kursk Oblast. The Russian Ministry of Defence asserted that Russian reserve units had responded to the Ukrainian assaults, and an insider source indicated that elements of the Chechen special forces unit, Akhmat, were also involved in repelling the attacks. However, ISW could not corroborate these assertions.

The Russian Ministry of Defence reported the destruction of 16 Ukrainian armoured vehicles during the raids and mentioned that Russian forces had launched retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian positions in Sumy Oblast. Russian bloggers circulated videos claiming to show the aftermath of the alleged Ukrainian incursions, although much of the depicted damage appeared to result from routine Ukrainian shelling, rather than ground assaults in the area.

To quote the ISW’s Key Takeaways on 6 August:

• Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces conducted a series of cross border raids into Kursk Oblast on 6 August.
• Russian milbloggers largely dismissed the supposed Ukrainian raids into Kursk Oblast, and Ukrainian officials have largely yet to comment on the raids.
• Russian Security Council Secretary and former Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu have heavily overexaggerated Russian advances in Ukraine since mid-June 2024.
• Russian officials continue coordination and military cooperation with Iran ahead of the Iranian retaliatory strike against Israel out of concern for Russian interests in the region.
• Armenia continues to abstain from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).
• Russian forces advanced east of Toretsk.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) reportedly issued a formal reply denying a request from the wives of the mobilised Russian personnel to meet with Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov.

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