According to analysts, the official authorities and structures of the Ministry of Defense did not agree on their statements about the events in the Kursk region. Because of this, the Russians made contradictory statements.
Points of attention
- Russian sources and analysts provide conflicting data regarding hostilities on the border with Ukraine.
- Local residents report communication problems and beatings in their villages, Russian telegram channels report destruction in the village of Suja.
- Analysis of geolocation footage and video reveals discrepancies in the versions about the consequences of the raids in the Kursk region.
How Russians differed about the events in the Kursk region
As noted The Institute for the Study of War, Governor Oleksiy Smirnov and several Russian military bloggers have warned that hostilities are ongoing in the border areas of the Suzhan and Korenevsky districts of Kursk Oblast.
At the same time, the Ministry of Defense and the FSB were convinced that they allegedly repelled several raids by Ukrainian forces equipped with approximately a battalion-sized number of tanks and armored vehicles.
Russian sources note that Ukrainian forces allegedly attacked Russian positions near Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshn, Kursk region (northwest of the city of Sumy and along the Russian-Ukrainian border).
However, geolocation footage released on August 6 shows a damaged and abandoned armored vehicle about seven kilometers north of the international border west of Lyubimivka, Kursk Oblast.
Russian sources claim that the footage shows Ukrainian equipment, but ISW cannot confirm whether this armored vehicle is Russian, Ukrainian, or both.
In addition, Russian bloggers claim that the Ukrainian forces attacked from two directions: from the Suja checkpoint and from the village of Nove, Sumy Oblast in the direction of Nikolayevo-Darino, Kursk Oblast.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that Russian reserve forces responded to the alleged Ukrainian raids, and a Russian insider source claimed that elements of the Chechen Akhmat Special Forces also repelled the raids, but ISW cannot verify these claims.
Russian bloggers have released videos purporting to show the aftermath of what appear to be Ukrainian raids, although most of the damage shown in the videos is the result of routine Ukrainian shelling and does not indicate that there was ground action in the area.
What is happening in the Kursk region
On the evening of August 6, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced that it was allegedly trying to repel an attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the border with the Kursk Region. It should be noted that the Defense Forces of Ukraine do not confirm or comment on this information.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that their fighters, they say, had to engage in battle with three hundred Ukrainian soldiers who broke through the Russian border "with the support of 11 tanks and more than 20 armored combat vehicles."
In addition, it is claimed that Ukrainian forces attacked the positions of the Russian occupiers in the areas of Mykolayevo-Darya and Oleshnya settlements.
However, local residents claimed that the communication in the border area does not work, and residents of villages near the border "sit in basements".
Russian telegram channels report numerous destructions in the village of Suja.
And the Legion "Freedom of Russia" writes about the battles in the area not only of the village of Suja, but also near Kurylivka, Kursk region.
