29 Nov: Putin Is Furious. North Koreans Can't Even Throw Grenades! - Reporting from Ukraine [View all]

Today, the biggest updates come from the Kursk direction.

Here, in their relentless push against Ukrainian defenses, Russian forces found themselves stalled and in urgent need of reinforcements to sustain their offensive. However, reports on their North Korean allies have just revealed alarming levels of inexperience, nearly causing massive casualties during a simple training exercise while learning how to use grenades, leaving Russian commanders increasingly desperate for viable solutions.

On the eastern part of the Kursk salient, Russians have recently advanced and reached the Snagost River and are trying hard to cross it. If Russians manage to cross the river, they would cut off a road and critical supply line to Novoivanovka, over which Ukrainians have repelled many Russian assaults on the town. The only viable location for Russians to establish their bridgehead is in Darino, as the buildings here would give Russians a place to store their supplies and continue their offensive further. Unfortunately for Russians, the river forms a strong natural barrier, and Ukrainians have set up their defense in the settlements and tree lines behind it.

Russian military analysts reported that the most important Ukrainian stronghold here is the farm on top of a hill in Darino, from where Ukrainians have repulsed any Russian attempt at crossing the river. Even though geolocated footage does show Russian soldiers operating within the town itself, Russians themselves report that Ukrainians already eliminate these assault groups shortly after they cross the river.

As the frontal river crossings had failed, Russians launched a risky flanking operation through the fields from the north, with agile quad bikes to surprise Ukrainian defenders. Despite the quads being smaller and more agile than heavy Russian armored vehicles, they were still detected and destroyed by Ukrainian FPV drones. Likely, this assault was launched as a probing attack, meant to test Ukrainian defenses for weak spots, testing to see if they could bypass Ukrainian defenses outright. Still, Russians have not yet launched any larger assaults in this area for several days now. A likely reason for this was that the costly battles up north for Novoivanovka and Malaya Loknya were draining Russian resources, making it difficult for Russians to further intensify their attacks on Darino.

Russian milbloggers critiqued the Russian commanders, as they stated they were destroying the Russian 155th naval infantry brigade themselves by launching constant suicidal attacks on Ukrainian positions. However, US intelligence reports show that Russians have over 11 thousand North Korean soldiers standing in reserve in the Kursk region, which could theoretically continue the Russian offensive. Nevertheless, Russians have seemingly halted all offensive operations on the main Ukrainian salient.

Confessions from several Russian prisoners of war could explain why North Korean troops have not yet been committed to large-scale frontline operations. The Russian prisoners of war state that North Korean soldiers have a severe lack of combat experience. He gives an example of one North Korean soldier nearly killing himself and his training group while learning how to throw a grenade. They add that North Korean training camps remain strictly off-limits to Russian soldiers and that one soldier was nearly shot after he accidentally wandered too close to their encampment. Interestingly, the prisoners were originally from a Storm-V penal battalion, as they confessed they had only received 10 days of training themselves. The fact that these soldiers already commented on the low training level of North Korean soldiers might explain the unwillingness of Russian commanders to send the North Korean soldiers to the front.

Overall, Russian commanders have pushed the 155th Naval infantry brigade to near-complete destruction once again. As recent reports suggest that North Korean soldiers do not have the necessary skills to engage in large-scale combat, Russians have been forced to redeploy over 4 thousand soldiers of the 79th VDV airborne division from the Zaporizhia region to Kursk. The additional redeployment of such a large number of forces also shows the scale of the losses Russians have already suffered. Along with the fact that Russians may be unable to fully rely on their North Korean reinforcements to achieve a decisive breakthrough in the future.