Russian troops reinforced Kursk and were suddenly hit by Ukrainian troops. "The road was completely blocked by burning cars"
2024-08-12
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Our special correspondent Chen Yang
Ukraine's sudden cross-border offensive against Russia's Kursk Oblast and other places shocked the world. In response to the latest Ukrainian offensive, the Russian army was sending reinforcements from all directions, but one of them was suddenly hit by a precise long-range attack by the Ukrainian army. CNN said on the 10th that the Ukrainian army may have used various new intelligence collection methods such as highway cameras to learn about the Russian army's movements, which also sounded the alarm for the confidential deployment of other armies around the world.
Road cameras leaking secrets?
CNN said that the Ukrainian army had made careful preparations before launching an attack in the direction of Kursk. First, they secretly gathered heavy troops in the border area and used electronic warfare to block Russian military communications. Relying on good intelligence gathering capabilities, the Ukrainian vanguard was able to bypass the Russian defense in the early chaotic battlefield and quickly penetrate deep into the area. "In the first two days of the operation, the Ukrainian army advanced more than 20 kilometers in the Kursk region and encountered almost no resistance."
Previously, the Russian troops deployed in Kursk were mainly poorly trained border guards. In order to control the situation, the Russian army is urgently sending reinforcements from different directions. The U.S. "Dynamics" website said on the 9th that videos shown by Russian official media showed that tanks, armored vehicles, multiple rocket launchers and trucks full of soldiers were rushing to the area for reinforcement. However, according to Ukrainian war reports, on the night of the 8th, a Russian reinforcement force was hit by a precise attack from the Ukrainian "HIMARS" long-range rocket launcher, and a video of the entire convoy engulfed in fire circulated on social media. Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov said, "The road was completely blocked by burning cars, and frequent ammunition explosions could be heard. The Ukrainian rocket artillery unit's salvos were very accurate."
The "Dynamics" website said that the latest video shows the scene after the attack. "More than a dozen cars were parked on the roadside, many of which were burned, and some were full of soldiers who looked dead or seriously injured. It is estimated that the attack killed more than 20 Russian soldiers and injured more than 100."
CNN said that the Ukrainian army may have managed to control the traffic cameras on the highway when the Russian reinforcements were moving along the highway. A Russian blogger, Alexander Kotz, said that he had passed this highway and "I noticed that there were cameras on the entire highway. They were really flashing lights." Relevant analysis said that the Ukrainian army may have used these traffic cameras to determine the location of the Russian reinforcements in real time and guide the rocket artillery troops to launch an attack.
The "Power" website also quoted another military blogger, Yuri Podlyaka, as saying, "This is an important issue that needs to be urgently resolved. I recently drove along the highway from Ryersk to Kursk via Ligov. The road was in good condition and traffic was smooth." Podlyaka said he noticed that there were cameras working along the highway. "I'm not sure if the enemy can use these road cameras and surveillance cameras to track the movement of our equipment. If they do, I won't be surprised at all."
Intelligence gathering methods are constantly being updated
In addition to using highway cameras to obtain intelligence, the U.S. media reported that the Ukrainian army may also remotely control cameras installed in local buildings to track the movement of Russian troops. These cameras, which were originally used for security, can basically be connected through the Internet, which provides convenient conditions for the Ukrainian army or Western intelligence agencies to carry out hacking and control.
In addition, Russian media also leaked many confidential deployments in their reports. Just one day after the Russian reinforcements were hit by Ukrainian rocket artillery, the Russian Red Star TV revealed the exact location of another Russian reinforcement entering the Kursk region in a live broadcast nearby, which sparked criticism on Russian social media. "First, in the morning in the Kursk region, someone filmed the scene after the convoy was hit, confirming the Russian army's losses. A few hours later, the deployment of another convoy in the same area was also leaked. The person who filmed it was not an enemy informant, but a Russian journalist."
The U.S. "National Interest" website stated that Ukraine had long ago used technical means to collect clues about the Russian military's movements from the media and social platforms and conduct integrated analysis to provide accurate intelligence for subsequent strikes. For example, at the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Ukrainian army used intelligence collected on the social platform "Telegram" to discover and destroy a Russian military convoy near Kiev. In August 2022, Russian tourists took photos near the Russian S-400 air defense missiles deployed in Crimea and uploaded them to social media. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also posted a special "thank you" on social media. On January 1, 2023, the Ukrainian army launched an attack on the Russian army in the Donetsk region, causing hundreds of Russian casualties. This is one of the "deadliest" attacks suffered by the Russian army since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Subsequent investigations showed that it was the frequent use of mobile phones by Russian soldiers on New Year's Eve that led to the exposure of the location of the Russian military base.
Western open-source intelligence organizations are also conducting similar intelligence collection and analysis work, such as identifying specific Russian military deployment locations through geo-located and tagged Russian military photos shared on social media; using flight tracking software to show which military aircraft are flying near Ukrainian airspace; and using NASA's fire database to track "thermal anomalies" in conflict areas to verify claims of new fighting or shelling in a certain area. According to the U.S. Defense News, the practice of using integrated social media messages to issue early warnings for aerial drone attacks is very efficient and cheap, and the U.S. military is also considering learning and introducing it.
The Russian army responded with long-range weapons
Russian military experts admitted that the Russian military convoy was attacked because of its own laxity: "When we mobilize reinforcements, the enemy will certainly track us through NATO satellites and other intelligence collection methods and try to cause additional damage. It is important that when we approach the front line, it is best to separate the columns (including during the stopover to avoid equipment and personnel crowding) to avoid losing too much equipment and personnel at one time when the Ukrainian missiles fall."
Regarding the Ukrainian army's use of US-made long-range rockets to attack the Russian mainland, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singer said that Ukraine has the right to use US equipment in Russia: "This is in line with our policy. We have supported Ukraine from the beginning in defending against attacks from the border and conducting necessary exchanges of fire." The Washington Post revealed that Ukrainian officials are requesting US approval to use the longer-range Army Tactical Missiles (ATACMS) to attack Russian deep targets to support the current fighting in the Kursk region.
However, CNN admitted that even with reinforcements, it would be difficult for the Ukrainian army to occupy hundreds of square kilometers of Russian territory for a long time. "The Ukrainian army took advantage of the lack of organized resistance from the Russian army in Kursk to make rapid progress, but controlling large tracts of Russian territory is beyond the Ukrainian army's ability. Russian reinforcements will eventually make a difference." Emil Kasthelmy, an analyst at the Finnish Blackbird Group, which uses open source intelligence to track the progress of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, said: "Time is not good for Ukraine, and Russia will not be in chaos forever."
Since the reinforcement and deployment of Russian ground forces still need time, the Russian Aerospace Forces and tactical missiles have been deployed more in the Kursk direction in recent days. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that a Su-34 fighter-bomber used an ODAB-500 thermobaric bomb to attack the Ukrainian army's manpower and equipment in the border area of Kursk State in the early morning of the 10th. "The bomb will produce a high-temperature explosion with a strong shock wave, and spread and destroy the enemy along trenches, bunkers and other fortifications." On the same day, the Russian army also used the "Iskander-M" tactical ballistic missile to destroy the command post of the 22nd Independent Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army in the border area of Kursk State. "15 commanders of the command post were eliminated." The Russian Ministry of Defense said: "During the combat operations in the Kursk direction, the enemy lost a total of 945 soldiers and 102 armored vehicles, including 12 tanks, 17 armored personnel carriers, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, 67 armored vehicles, 12 cars, 2 sets of 'Buk M1' air defense missile launchers and 3 artillery."▲#Deep Good Articles Project#
