14 Sep: Strategic Success! Ukrainians Force Russians Sacrifice Pokrovsk Offensive - Reporting from Ukraine

Today there are a lot of important updates from the Kursk direction.

Here, in a critical turning point, Ukrainian forces finally managed to escalate the pressure in the Kursk region to such an extent that the Russians were forced to sacrifice their Pokrovsk offensive and redeploy their most critical reserves to the north. By disrupting the biggest Russian offensive operation, on which Russians staked everything, the Ukrainian Kursk offensive proved to be a strategic success.

In the Korenevo area, Ukrainian forces significantly outnumbered the Russian defenders of the town and its surroundings. As the Russians lost substantial territory on the northern and southern flanks, Korenevo faced an imminent threat of encirclement. Russian forces anticipated Ukrainian attacks from Snagost and Krasnoktyabrske to the south, as well as from the railway embankment to the north, where the Ukrainians held strong positions that could serve as a base for further assaults.

As a result, the Russian command has been gradually redeploying troops to bolster their defenses in Kursk, forces initially intended to support the offensive in Pokrovsk. This shift is crucial because drawing Russian forces away from Pokrovsk was the primary Ukrainian strategic objective and the aim of the Kursk offensive. Consequently, the Russian command sought to avoid deploying reserves from Pokrovsk at all costs. They redeployed troops from various parts of the frontline, including Chasiv Yar, but avoided drawing from Pokrovsk to maintain their momentum.

However, the worsening situation in and around Korenevo, coupled with the risk of encirclement by Ukrainian forces—which would open a route to Glushkovo—necessitated further redeployment of forces and equipment to alleviate the pressure. That is why the Russians were eventually compelled to redeploy troops from Pokrovsk as well. According to Russian sources, this included elements from the Fifteenth Motorized Rifle Brigade and the First Sloviansk Brigade. After accumulating forces, Russians even started launching conterattacks around Korenevo. The goal of these counterattacks is to remove the Ukrainian pressure on the town from the southern flank.

The first wave of counterattacks comprised eight armored vehicles and at least seventy soldiers. Geolocated footage from the area shows the assault group advancing on the road from Korenevo to Snagost. Upon entering the village, they faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian fighters defending their positions. The Russian BMPs fired from their autocannons to provide cover for the dismounting infantry. The full uncensored combat footage of all operations can be found on our Telegram channel through the link in the description.

The Russians would not be able to sustain such counterattacks without a substantial increase in available troops in the region. Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky stated that the Russians redeployed up to thirty thousand troops from unspecified directions to Kursk. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that there are up to sixty thousand Russian troops across the northeastern border from Bryansk to Kharkiv, including Kursk. Syrsky also noted that the number of troops, initially at thirty thousand, is expected to rise as the Russians plan further counteroffensive efforts in the Kursk region.

By forcing the Russians to deploy a significant number of reserves to Kursk, the Ukrainian command was able to alter the war's trajectory. The diversion of most Russian reserves to the Kursk region led to a slowdown in the Pokrovsk offensive due to inadequate reserves, which were unable to replace heavy losses and maintain the previous operational tempo. Therefore, Ukrainian forces managed to stabilize the Pokrovsk front and even begin pushing the Russians back around New York and Selydove, once the most critical and dynamic parts of the front. This success achieved the primary goal of the Kursk incursion: undermining the Russians' theater-wide initiative.

But this was just the beginning of the bad news for the Russians. The large deployment of Russian reserves to Kursk forced the Russian Northern Command to quickly establish logistics hubs, including ammunition and fuel depots, in Belgorod and Voronezh to support the counterattacks. Ukrainian Military Intelligence tracked the increased movement of Russian forces and identified the location of an ammunition...