Russia has deployed a regiment of its Aerospace Forces to defend the Kursk region due to a manpower shortage amid Ukraine’s ongoing incursion, according to an independent investigative Russian outlet.
President Vladimir Putin‘s so-called “space troops” have been tasked to push back Ukraine’s forces after Kyiv launched a cross-border raid on August 6 in Kursk, seemingly catching Moscow off guard, Important Stories reported on Sunday.
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Ukrainian forces have so far seized control of 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) of Russian territory and 82 settlements in Kursk, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, said on August 15.
The scale of the offensive is significant—Ukraine is now reported to have seized more territory in the Kursk region in days than Russia has captured in Ukraine since the beginning of the year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s troops are showing no signs of slowing down.
It also marks the first time that foreign troops have seized Russian territory since World War II.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Important Stories said a temporary motorized rifle regiment of Russia’s Aerospace Forces has been deployed to Kursk, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy region.
The unit, created between May and June, consists of personnel from security and logistics companies, engineers, mechanics, some officers, and servicemen from a Russian spaceport. There are also personnel from special warehouses of the Aerospace Forces and radar stations in Russia’s Voronezh region, who were previously in charge of manning Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict on Sunday that the Kursk incursion is also forcing Russia to redeploy its troops from the front line in Ukraine. The ISW added that “likely subsequent phases of fighting within Russia will require more Russian manpower and materiel commitments to the area.”
The think tank cited an article published by The Wall Street Journal on August 17 that reported that some 5,000 personnel had already been redeployed from Ukraine to Kursk by August 13.
That report “partially coheres with a report that Russian forces had redeployed up to 11 battalions to the front line in Kursk Oblast as of August 11,” the ISW said.
“Russian forces have redeployed additional forces to Kursk Oblast since the first week of the Ukrainian incursion and have likely redeployed more than 5,000 personnel to Kursk Oblast overall,” the ISW added. The think tank said that exact amount of manpower and material Putin will need in Kursk will depend on how heavily Zelensky’s troops defend the newly captured settlements.
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