26 Nov: Leaked Footage: North Koreans Operate in Kursk's Forests - Reporting from Ukraine

[TexasTowelie]

Today, the biggest updates come from the Kursk direction.

Here, after a series of disastrous defeats, Russian forces decided to change their tactics and tried a new assault on the main Ukrainian stronghold. But even more importantly, new footage revealed how North Korean soldiers are undergoing active integration into Russian formations and getting ready for large-scale combat operations in the region.

The main Russian goal continues to be to cut off Ukrainian forces in the northern part of the salient with a pincer maneuver toward Malaya Loknya. But after a disastrous failed assault through the settlements left many Russian soldiers encircled, and false reports only worsened the situation, Russians were forced to change their tactics.

If we look at the topographic map, we can see that Malaya Loknya sits on a hill chain with a hardened road running along it. In a change of tactics, instead of advancing through the settlements in the lowlands, Russians are now trying to advance over the hill chain to reach their goal of capturing Malaya Loknya. Besides being able to attack Ukrainian positions from the same height, by taking up positions in the tree line along the road, Russians would simultaneously gain fire control over the settlements in the lowlands.

Russians launched several waves of assaults along this road, while Ukrainians had set up to repulse them most effectively. Geolocated footage shows how Russian vehicles sped down the road but continuously blew up on Ukrainian anti-tank mines. The footage also shows how Russians did not use purely mechanized forces in their assaults, but unarmored trucks filled with infantry. This indicates that Russians had not yet fixed their communication issues, and expected the road to be already secured by previous assaults. After Ukrainian artillery had opened fire, shrapnel tore through the unarmored personnel carriers, as the soldiers and trucks scattered in all directions to get out of the Ukrainian kill zone as fast as possible.

Even though Ukrainian drones were able to hunt down many of the remaining Russian soldiers, Ukrainians could not prevent small groups of them from making it to dugouts and trenches in the surrounding trees. This is a typical Russian tactic, where Russian infantry scatters in all directions to take shelter, establishing new positions to inch the frontline forward, even after a failed assault. Ukrainians understood this and sent in special forces groups to finish off the remaining soldiers or take them captive. As the Russian soldiers often do not have the supplies or training necessary to fight off the well-trained and battle-hardened Special Forces operators successfully, many Russians simply surrender shortly after being taken under fire.

Interestingly, one captured Russian soldier revealed that there was a North Korean military encampment in the region, just 25 kilometers or 15 and a half miles from Ukrainian lines. He also added that that they were instructed not to disclose any information on North Korean fighters, and to only mention Buryats, which are an Asian-Mongolian ethnic group within eastern Russian territories, to hide North Korean involvement as much as possible. Later, another Russian soldier leaked a video showing how they were teaching North Korean soldiers Russian phrases. This indicates that North Koreans are preparing to engage in active frontline combat operations soon, and are trying to ensure that they will be able to work together when conducting assaults in the future.

Overall, Russian forces try to inch themselves forward with every attack, as even after a failed assault, Ukrainians cannot prevent some Russian soldiers from taking up new positions. Ukrainians maintain an active defense by clearing the exhausted Russian soldiers, while gaining valuable intel on Russian and North Korean operations. Russians are losing more and more of their better-trained soldiers with every failed assault, and likely do not have enough of them in reserve to accomplish their goals on their own. Likely, the North Korean soldiers will be sent forward as a first wave of assault, to deplete Ukrainian supplies, expose firing positions, and trigger hidden land mines and ambushes. The idea being that after this, Russian troops can come in to clean up the remaining Ukrainian positions, a Russian cannon fodder tactic that was widely applied to Russian convict recruits, leading to countless losses of troops.