Russia deploy additional troops to Kursk region for counter-offensive - ISW

This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

“The ISW... has not yet observed large-scale hostilities that would indicate that Russian forces have launched a large-scale coordinated counteroffensive operation aimed at completely ousting Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region,” the report says.

The day before, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Russian troops had launched counteroffensive operations in the Kursk region, and Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder said the United States had observed Russian units attempting to conduct “some kind of counteroffensive” operation, which Ryder described as “minor.”

According to Zelensky, Russia has concentrated 40,000 troops in the Kursk region, and the Russian military command wants to deploy about 60-70,000 people in total. This is significantly more than the 50,000 troops that U.S. officials estimate Russia will need to push Ukrainians out of the Kursk region.

Analysts note that so far, the Russian government has relied heavily on poorly trained and equipped conscripts and small units of regular and irregular troops to counter the Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region. The ISW believes it is unlikely that the majority of the Russian grouping in the Kursk region consists of experienced combat units.

According to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Russian counteroffensive to retake territory in the Kursk region would likely require even more manpower and equipment than Russia has already concentrated in the region, especially if most of the units involved lack combat experience. Russian airborne troops, recently redeployed to the Kursk region from the front in Ukraine, are currently responsible for counterattacks in the Kursk region.

This indicates that the Russian military command may intend to use units that are considered “elite” or more combat-ready, ISW notes.

“The Russian military will undoubtedly be forced to redeploy units already involved in offensive operations or operational reserves from Ukraine to the Kursk region to form the combat-ready units needed to conduct a major counteroffensive operation and then guard the border,” the report says.

As Ukrinform reported, Colonel Ants Kiviselg, head of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center, said that Russian troops had launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region, but without much success.