Battle for Kursk is Developing into a Full Blown War

A war in its own right

Shankar Narayan
6 min readSep 15, 2024

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Screenshot of battlefield in Kusrk Oblast, September 14th, 2024. Image from Deepstatemaps. Sketch added by me.

From a battle strategy perspective, Ukraine had several objectives in Kursk. They employed a layered strategy where achieving one objective leads to progression to the next.

Ukraine’s initial objectives in Kursk were:

  • Force Russia to move its troops from the older frontline. Reduce the density of Russian forces inside Ukraine.
  • Push Russia to relocate its troops from Donbas, particularly the Pokrovsk sector.
  • Increase Russian casualties and destroy weapons at a higher rate.
  • Undermine Putin’s strongman image within Russia.

As of September 15, 2024, Ukraine has achieved all of these objectives. Forty-five days after Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk Oblast, a Russian territory bordering Ukraine to the north, Russian forces have withdrawn some troops from Pokrovsk and redeployed them to Kursk.

While I don’t believe Russia has entirely abandoned its ambition to control Ukraine’s mineral-rich Donbas region, its strategy has shifted over the past two weeks for two key reasons: the advance toward Pokrovsk has been stalled for nearly two weeks, and while they are unable to make progress, they continue to suffer heavy losses in the sector.

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Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.