Eurasia Press & News
In today’s summary:
- The Russian Armed Forces counterattack in the Kursk region – several villages at the junction of the Glushkovsky and Korenevsky districts have been captured
- The Ukrainian offensive began in a new area in the Kursk direction – in the southern part of the Glushkovsky district
- In the Pokrovsk direction, Russian troops are advancing on the southern flank near Ukrainsk and Selidovo
- A threatening situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces is developing near Ugledar and at the bridgehead on the left bank of the Oskol River
- The largest air raid on the Moscow region during the war resulted in the first recorded death of a civilian
- Russian Su-30SM fighter jet lost over Black Sea – reportedly shot down by MANPADS
- Russian prisoners of war deprived of phone calls – in response to regular executions of Ukrainians surrendering
- Volodymyr Zelensky complains about insufficient supplies of long-range Storm Shadow and ATACMS missiles
The situation at the front
This week, the front in Kursk Oblast , which had been relatively stable for quite some time, began to move. Russian troops attacked ( 1 , 2 ) at the junction of Glushkovsky and Korenevsky districts, at least significantly pushing back the Ukrainian military. The Russian Defense Ministry reported the restoration of control over 10 settlements at once, but so far the presence of the Russian Armed Forces is only known for certain in Krasnooktyabrsky , Snagost and Komarovka . As a result, Glushkovsky District , until recently surrounded on three sides by Ukrainian troops, was unblocked from the east. Ukrainian sources warned of disorganization of the defense and the possible escalation of the situation into a “poorly controlled crisis”, but on the third day there were reports of successful counterattacks.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Armed Forces broke through the defenses on the border in the southern part of the Glushkovsky district and consolidated their positions in the plantations near Vesyoloye , although the Russian Defense Ministry announced that this attack had been repelled. Ukrainian forces also hit a concentration of Russian military personnel and equipment near the crossing over the Seim River using a HIMARS MLRS with a cluster warhead .
Ukrainian military observer Konstantin Mashovets estimated the number of Russian troops in the Kursk region at 33–35 thousand people and suggested that the Russian Armed Forces would “try to push” the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of Russian territory. The Insider previously suggested that at least 30 thousand fighters would need to be assembled for such an operation.
In the Donetsk region, the offensive of the Russian Armed Forces in the direction of Pokrovsk (before 2016 – Krasnoarmeysk ) never resumed, but they advanced in the southern part of this section of the front, creating a threatening situation in Ukrainsk , completing the capture of Krasnogorovka and attempting to encircle the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in the area of the “Nevel pocket” formed between Krasnogorovka and Karlovka . At the same time, the attack on Ostroye resulted in large losses of armored vehicles, and near Selidovo, Russian units were forced to retreat behind the railroad. In the area of Pokrovsk itself , the Russian Armed Forces actively countered Ukrainian logistics, destroying two bridges ( 1 , 2 ) and a crossing .
Russian serviceman Svyatoslav Golikov believes that the shift of actions to the southern flank of the Pokrovsk direction is explained by the need to secure the flank for a further offensive on Pokrovsk in order to avoid a Ukrainian counterattack, although, in his opinion, the latter could have been avoided with the help of reconnaissance and fire contours, promptly identifying and destroying concentrations of manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces preparing for counterattacks. He also notes the lack of artillery and air weapons, as well as the lack of a solution to the problem of the enemy’s superiority in drones. “Voyenkor” Yuriy Kotenok, in turn, complains about the shortage of personnel in the advancing group. However, a shortage of people is also noted among the defending Ukrainian units, along with the low morale of those recently mobilized, who are inclined to abandon their positions.
In addition, Russian forces continued their offensive this week in the area of the Ugledar salient , attempting to take the city in a pincer movement. They managed to take Vodyanoye , northeast of Ugledar , and also advanced in the area of Prechistovka . In addition, the Russian Armed Forces again advanced near Peschanoye , threatening to cut in two the Ukrainian Armed Forces bridgehead on the left bank of the Oskol River .
The past week has seen innovations in the use of drones by both sides. The Ukrainian military has begun to combat enemy motorcycle assaults by dropping PFM-1 “Lepestok” mines from UAVs , which at the very least immobilize motorcycles when they are run over. The Russian military, following the Ukrainian Armed Forces, has begun to use “thermite drones” with an incendiary mixture, as well as, probably, “aviamater” UAVs , which deliver FPV drones far behind the front lines and act as signal repeaters.
Mutual shelling and sabotage
During the week, the Ukrainian Air Force Command reported repelling the following missile and drone strikes:
On the night of September 7, 58 out of 67 Shahed drones were shot down, another six left Ukrainian airspace, and three were “lost in location”, probably having fallen under the influence of electronic warfare . The wreckage of one of the Shaheds fell near the Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev , and another crashed in Latvia, flying through Belarus;
On the night of September 8, 15 of the 23 launched Shahed missiles and one of the four Kh-59 guided air missiles were shot down;
On the night of September 9, six of the eight Shaheds and two of the three X-59s were destroyed;
On the night of September 10, 46 Shahed missiles were launched (38 were shot down, three were “lost in location”, and three more left the territory of Ukraine), as well as an Iskander-M ballistic missile and an Kh-31P anti-radar missile (there were no reports of their interception);
On the night of September 11 , 20 out of 25 Shaheds were shot down, and launches of one Iskander-M ballistic missile, two SAMs from the S-300 SAM system , and six Kh-31P anti-radar missiles were also noted;
On the night of September 12, 64 Shahed missiles were launched, 44 of which were intercepted, three flew back to Russia, and four more were “lost in location”. Launches of two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and one Kh-59/Kh-69 guided air missile were recorded at Chernihiv Oblast , as well as two Kh-22/Kh-32 supersonic cruise missiles in the direction of Zmeiny Island . One of the missiles hit a ship carrying wheat to Egypt from the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk . In addition, 13 people were injured in the city of Konotop in Sumy Oblast during the night raid ;
On the night of September 13, 24 out of 26 Shaheds were shot down.
Also on September 12, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine reported shelling of energy facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk , Donetsk , Sumy , Kharkiv , Kherson and Chernihiv regions over the previous day . On the same day, Russians fired artillery at a humanitarian mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Donetsk region – three employees were killed and two more were wounded.
In addition, deaths and injuries of civilians as a result of shelling were reported in Donetsk ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ), Kharkiv ( 1 , 2 , 3 ), Dnipropetrovsk ( 1 , 2 ) and Sumy regions .
The Russian Ministry of Defense, in turn, reported repelling the following raids:
on the night of September 7, four aircraft-type UAVs were destroyed and an ammunition depot in the Voronezh region was hit ;
on the night of September 8 – three UAVs;
on the night of September 9 – two UAVs;
On the night of September 10, 144 UAVs were destroyed. The largest raid of the entire war took place in the Moscow region, one of the drones fell on the Chkalovsky airfield , in Ramenskoye a woman died as a result of a UAV hitting a multi-story building;
On the night of September 11, four UAVs were shot down;
on the night of September 12 – five UAVs;
on the night of September 13 – 20 UAVs.
Thus, over the course of the week, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the launch of 250 Shaheds and 24 missiles by the enemy, and the Russian Defense Ministry reported the interception of 182 aircraft-type UAVs during night raids.
In addition, during the week, Ukrainian strikes were reported on the following targets:
by radars from the S-400 air defense missile system in the occupied territory of Ukraine ;
on the fuel storage facility in the Belgorod region ;
at a gas distribution station in the Tula region using a SAM for the S-200 air defense missile system;
by train with petroleum products in the territory of Zaporizhia region ;
at unidentified objects in the vicinity of Mariupol .
In addition, in the Belgorod region, as a result of sabotage, a freight train was derailed , and in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, two schoolchildren burned an Mi-8 helicopter for a promised reward of 5 million rubles.
Civilians killed and wounded as a result of shelling were reported in the occupied Donetsk and Kherson regions ( 1 , 2 ), as well as in the Belgorod region .
Losses
Analyst Naalsio has updated the calculation of visually confirmed losses of Russian and Ukrainian military equipment in the Pokrovsk direction . According to his data, in the period from August 16 to September 6, the Russian Armed Forces lost at least 98 units of equipment here, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost at least 17 units. In the Kursk direction , according to Naalsio’s calculations , from September 3 to 9, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost at least 16 units of equipment, and the Russian Armed Forces lost at least 12 units.
Oryx volunteer Jakub Janowski reports that the total losses of Russian tanks, infantry fighting vehicles , armored personnel carriers , MRAP armored vehicles and other armored combat vehicles since the start of the full-scale invasion have exceeded 10,000 units.
Z-channels close to the Russian Aerospace Forces confirmed the loss of a Russian Su-30SM fighter over the Black Sea , which had previously been reported by Ukrainian channels. The Main Intelligence Directorate stated that the plane was shot down by Ukrainian special forces using a MANPADS and published a corresponding video. However, Fighterbomber claims that the video does not capture the moment of the shootdown, and the true cause of the plane’s destruction has yet to be determined.
Russian soldiers wounded in the Kursk region are experiencing problems with payments for their injuries, reports the Telegram channel Verum Regnum|Nash Regnum. Since the region is not formally part of the ” Northern Military District zone ,” military investigators work with each wounded person, finding out exactly how they were wounded, and fill out “a bunch of paperwork” to receive the appropriate payment, as if it happened in peacetime.
An exchange of prisoners of war took place – 49 Russians for 49 Ukrainians. According to the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, among those released were 23 women, including Crimean Tatar activist Leniye Umerova and other Ukrainian civilians detained by the Russians. Also released were 15 defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal . According to a report by the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live”, the exchanged Russians were captured in the Kursk region . This is confirmed by propagandist Anastasia Kashevarova.
In response to the ongoing executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war at the LBS, Russians held captive in Ukraine have been banned from calling their relatives. As the Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets emphasized, this ban does not violate the Geneva Conventions, since they speak of the right to correspondence, which Russian prisoners still have. However, as Ukrainian serviceman Stanislav Bunyatov writes , those prisoners who surrendered under the “I Want to Live!” program retain the right to audio or video calls.
Z-channels reported how two Russian reconnaissance UAV operators with the call signs Goodwin and Ernest were sent to the assault infantry due to a conflict with their commander, where they died. “In essence, this decision eliminated one of the best reconnaissance UAV crews,” the “Military Informant” channel states .
According to UN estimates , 184 civilians were killed and 856 were wounded in Ukraine in August (10 of whom died and 84 were wounded in the occupied territories). Among the dead were 8 children, and among the wounded were 51 children.
Weapons and military equipment
During his speech at the meeting of the contact group in the Rammstein format, Volodymyr Zelensky accused Western partners of insufficient supplies of long-range Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG and ATACMS missiles (it is quite possible that the former simply ran out ). It also became known that Ukraine is experiencing problems with spare parts and wear of barrels of German PzH 2000 self-propelled guns . In addition, the Netherlands has not managed to assemble a full-fledged Patriot battery for Ukraine, and Poland has not yet allocated funds for the purchase of artillery ammunition within the framework of the “Czech initiative” .
France and Sweden will double the production of ammunition and explosives by 2025, and by 2026 will double the production of modular charges and increase the production of gunpowder by 10 times. This, among other things, is stated in the communiqué of the US Department of Defense following the meeting of the Rammstein contact group. In addition, France plans to purchase ammunition for Ukrainian air defense and artillery on the domestic market using profits from frozen Russian assets, and Sweden announced the supply of ammunition for the CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle, RBS 70 MANPADS, anti-tank weapons and boats as part of the next military aid package.
The Baltic states have also announced new military aid to Ukraine: Lithuania will invest €10 million in the purchase of Ukrainian-developed Palyanitsya drone missiles for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and also plans to supply artillery ammunition and short-range air defense systems in the near future. Latvia has planned to supply Patria armored personnel carriers, drones, and ammunition in 2025.
Finland also announced a new military aid package worth €118 million , traditionally without disclosing its nomenclature. Finally, Portugal sent six Ka-32 firefighting helicopters to Ukraine, which were promised back in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military-industrial complex has mastered the production of 5.45 mm cartridges, which correspond in ballistics to Soviet models. In addition, the 12th Brigade of the National Guard “Azov” was noticed to be armed with American M109L self-propelled guns, which probably became possible only after the recent lifting of the ban on the transfer of American weapons to “Azov”.
Russian defense enterprises, in turn, reported on the delivery of Su-57 and Su-35S fighters and T-90M Proryv tanks to the troops. In addition, it turned out that a Kazakh company services Russian Su-30SM fighters in circumvention of sanctions using French equipment, and the DPRK supplies the Russian Armed Forces with ballistic missiles produced in 2024.
Among the unique products of the “front-line military-industrial complex” are the Ukrainian ammunition for “skid” with striking elements in the form of small coins and screws, as well as the Russian “tsar- motolyga ” – the feasibility of the latter modification, however, is questionable due to the weak basic armor and the effect of the weight of the structure on cross-country ability.
