[Korrespondent] 18:37 Russian troops are actively using aviation in the Kursk region: today, 17 airstrikes with the use of 27 guided aerial bombs on populated areas of the Russian Federation are already known, the General Staff reported. Air Force Commander Nikolai Oleshchuk, in turn, showed a video of tactical aviation pilots striking enemy concentrations, equipment and positions of Russians who, after the announced evacuation of civilians from the border area of ​​the Kursk region, are actively occupying civilian facilities:
14:53 Radio Liberty journalists visited Sudzha in the Kursk region and in their report told what is happening there:
12:55 The Kremlin believes that the fighting in the Kursk region will last for several months, and is preparing to convince Russians that this is a "new normal," Meduza writes, citing sources close to the Putin administration and the government. According to them, immediately after the start of the Ukrainian invasion, the Russian elites were shocked, but in two weeks "the shock passed, and they got used to it."
In order to calm the anxious mood in society, the Kremlin, according to media reports, intends to prepare Russians for life in the conditions of a "new reality" and "new normality" through controlled media. The main theses will be as follows: the Ukrainian Armed Forces have indeed broken through to Russian territory, they are facing "inevitable defeat", but the return of territories will take time, Russians need to wait. In the meantime, Russian citizens will be offered to "direct negativity and shock into a positive direction" by helping the Kursk region in every possible way.
Meduza also writes that the Kremlin has begun discussing the announcement of a new wave of mobilization due to the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive in the Kursk region, but so far there has been no decision and the problem of the shortage of personnel in the border area is being solved by conscripts.
12:03 In the Kursk region, fighting has begun for the next major settlement, Korenevo, writes Bild. The publication notes that the advance of Ukrainian troops is taking place against the backdrop of statements by the Russian leadership that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have allegedly already been stopped, which means that the loss of Korenevo will be a huge reputational blow to Putin personally.
11:52 Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine showed how they destroy Russian pontoon crossings in the Kursk region:
11:44 The Wall Street Journal writes that several months before the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive on the Kursk region, Russian General Alexander Lapin dissolved the regional defense council, which coordinated the actions of the military and special services, so during the Ukrainian offensive, the Russians were left without a single control center. Then the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation began to compete with each other, figuring out who was in charge. This led to chaos. The WSJ notes that the failure of the defense of the Kursk region was also due to a critical shortage of military personnel in the region.
In November 2022, Lapin was removed from his post as commander of the Central Military District when the Ukrainian Armed Forces recaptured territories in northeastern Ukraine. Later, in January 2023, Lapin became head of the General Staff of the Ground Forces and was responsible for the defense of the Russian border.
08:59 The Russian military command has redeployed some of its units from the direction of Chasovy Yar to the Kursk region to stop the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports. According to analysts, elements of the 11th Brigade, intended to replace or reinforce the forward units, have been redeployed near Sudzha. At the same time, Russians participating in combat operations at the front were not touched.
ISW believes that such redeployments could affect the pace of Russian offensive operations, but this could take several months. In general, the Russian military command does not want to withdraw units involved in combat operations from higher-priority sectors of the Donetsk region.
According to Russian sources, the Russian Armed Forces command has redeployed units of the 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment (72nd Motorized Rifle Division, 22nd Army Corps, Leningrad Military District) to the Kursk Region, which as of mid-July was operating in the north of the Kharkov Region. ISW also cited one of the Ukrainian military observers, who claimed that an unspecified unit of the 4th Tank Division (1st Guards Tank Army, Moscow Military District) was operating in the Kursk Region. However, this unit was probably there even before the start of the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk Region.