Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Stock photo: Russian media

Experts from the Institute for War Research stressed that the Russian authorities and military command are in the process of setting up a complicated and so far inefficient agency to respond to the operation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

source: ISW

Quote: “The Kremlin and the Russian military command are creating a complicated, overlapping and so far ineffective command and control structure for the Russian response to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast.”

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Details: On August 15, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov announced the establishment of a so-called Coordination Council for Military and Security Issues in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk Oblasts.

Belousov explained that the goal of the Coordination Council is to improve support for Russian forces on the state border. It will oversee effective logistics, coordination between forces responding to threats along the state border, as well as engineering arrangements and military-medical support.

It was pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin had assigned the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Guard (Rosgvardia) tasks that overlap in Kursk Oblast, and that these bodies had so far taken no significant steps to establish a clearer division of responsibilities.

Quote: “The delay in establishing a complex Russian command and control structure in Kursk Oblast further underscores the fact that the Kremlin has failed to plan for the possibility of a significant Ukrainian incursion into Russia.”

More details: The experts believed that the Kremlin is pursuing a more coordinated approach to securing its control over the Russian information space than in solving its military problems and other issues in Kursk Oblast.

It was found that Russian officials and propagandists appear to have launched a coordinated campaign to discredit so-called military bloggers and non-Kremlin-affiliated social media channels that have been spreading information about Ukrainian operations in Kursk Oblast since the start of the operation.

Quote: “The Kremlin is probably trying to hastily create a new information space in which predominantly co-opted Russian military bloggers and established Russian state propagandists will present themselves.”

To quote the ISW’s key findings from August 15:

• Ukrainian officials are taking steps to consolidate and coordinate management of ongoing Ukrainian operations in Kursk Oblast while continuing to highlight Ukrainian progress.
• Russian military bloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces continued to advance in some areas of Kursk Oblast, while overall Ukrainian operations in the region were progressing more slowly.
• Russian forces are maintaining a relatively high tempo of attack in Donetsk Oblast, showing that the Russian military command continues to prioritize the advance in eastern Ukraine, even as Ukraine puts pressure on Russian forces in Kursk Oblast.
• The Kremlin and the Russian military command are creating a complex, overlapping and so far ineffective command and control structure (C2) for the Russian response to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast.
• The delayed construction of a complex Russian C2 structure in Kursk Oblast underscores again the fact that the Kremlin had failed to plan for the possibility of a major Ukrainian invasion of Russia.
• The Kremlin appears to be taking a more coordinated approach to securing its control over the Russian information space than it did in resolving its military and C2 problems in Kursk Oblast.
• The Kremlin is probably trying to hastily create a new information space in which co-opted Russian military bloggers and established Russian state propagandists will present themselves.
• Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast are reportedly using Western-sourced equipment, but their ability to attack Russian military targets in Russia with Western-sourced weapons remains limited.
• Ukraine is currently organizing the creation of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of Russian civilians affected by the ongoing Kursk operation, in order to fill an obvious vacuum left by the administration of Kursk Oblast and to meet the requirements of international law for the evacuation of the civilian population.
• The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces carried out successful drone strikes on Russian air bases in Russia on the night of August 13-14.
• Recently, Russian forces managed to make progress on the Pokrovsk and Toretsk fronts.
• On August 15, the Russian government presented a draft law that proposes to lower the age of admission to the Russian Volunteer Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy of Russia from 18 to 14 years.

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