Ukrainian troops defeat invaders’ convoy in Kursk oblast

18 October, 2024 A destroyed column of Russian armored vehicles in the Kursk oblast, October 2024. Photo: Russian propaganda media An advancing convoy of Russian armored vehicles was ambushed by the Ukrainian troops in the Kursk oblast.

Russian telegram channels published the video, mistakenly identifying the damaged equipment as Ukrainian. An armored group of the Russian troops moving to strike the left flank of the Ukrainian advance was defeated near the village of Lyubimovka, the Kursk region. As a result of the successful operation, two Z-STS "Akhmat" armored vehicles, a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle, and one BMP-3 have completely been destroyed.

In their report, the Russian propagandists mistakenly identified one of the destroyed vehicles as an M2 Bradley due to poor quality of the footage, thus attributing the destroyed convoy to the Ukrainian losses. However, a closer analysis revealed that it was a Russian BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle.

In particular, this is evidenced by the characteristic shape of the armored body and the barrel of the 100mm gun.

A damaged Russian BMP-3, the Kursk region, October 17, 2024. Photo credits: Russian propaganda media

The location of the ambush was geolocated (here) on the Snagot-Lyubimovka road near the village itself. The equipment was moving to Zelenyi Shlyakh and Novoivanivka, where the enemy had been trying to consolidate the result of the breakthrough of Ukrainian troops' defense for a long time.

An ambush on this road may indicate that neither side controls the area and that intense fighting is taking place in this area.

Location of the damaged convoy of the Russian Armed Forces. Photo credits: DeepState map

Defense breakthrough in the Kursk oblast

A few days earlier, Militarnyi reported that during a similar ambush 6 kilometers to the north, the Ukrainian soldiers had destroyed another convoy of the Russian armored vehicles.

Then a tank supported by attack drones shot at the enemy vehicles at point blank range, which the Russians had used to develop their successful offensive toward Zelenyi Shlyakh and Novoivanivka.

Breakthrough of Ukrainian troops' defense in the Kursk oblast

The Ukrainian analytical project DeepState noted that the reasons for the successful offensive had been the formation of a powerful group of troops in the area and the extremely low level of cooperation between the Ukrainian forces.