July 10, 2025:
When Ukrainian forces invaded the Russian Kursk region on August 6, 2024, one of the Russian obstacles they encountered were rows of concrete dragons’ teeth. This proved to be a sham because the Russian contractor who built the two-meter tall concrete dragons’ teeth used cheaper, inferior concrete. This caused the concrete barriers to crumble and fail if an armored vehicle rammed them. Russian authorities apprehended and prosecuted the contractors.
The Ukrainians invaded with about 20,000 troops and 600 armored vehicles. These troops were supported by hundreds of drones. The objective of this attack was causing more Russian casualties, taking prisoners, and forcing Russia to weaken forces in other areas to deal with the incursion. Another major goal was severing Russian supply lines or at least making them longer. Moving supplies into Ukraine was always a major Russian vulnerability. The Ukrainians destroyed several crucial bridges while in Russia and this did impede Russian supply efforts in this area for several months.
By the time Ukrainian forces withdrew, their losses were 2,300 dead and 7,700 missing with 307 captured. Russia lost 20,000 dead about four times as many wounded and 100 captured.
Russia eventually brought in 50,000 troops, including 12,000 North Korea mercenaries. The Russian counteroffensive against the Ukrainian incursion failed and Ukrainians finally left by March 11, 2025, after doing substantial damage to Russian military facilities in the area. The Ukrainian retreat was the result of a Russian counterattack.
The Ukrainian Kursk offensive took the Russians by surprise. It was the most notable cross-border attack since the Russians invaded Ukraine in 2022. That this was Ukraine invading Russia was unbelievable to the Russians. The impact on Russian morale, at least at the higher levels of command, was noticeable. Then again Ukrainian government and military officials were surprised by the attack, which was planned and conducted without their knowledge. An accurate analysis of the impact of this operation won’t be available until the war ends. That analysis will probably consider the Ukrainian attack a success. The Ukrainian forces remained inside Russia longer than anyone on either side expected. The Kursk attack changed the way Russian government and military leaders
As a footnote to this incident, consider the overall impact of corruption on Russian operations in Ukraine. Since 2022 dozens of Russian government and military officials have been arrested on corruption charges. The war in Ukraine has been expensive for Russia and a lot of that money was stolen by Russians responsible for spending it on what the troops needed to succeed. While some of these men were caught and sent to prison, many got away with this. These crooks were some of the best allies Ukraine had. There was some corruption among Ukrainians before and in the early stages of the invasion. Soon, the realization that the very existence of Ukraine was at stake caused the corruption to largely disappear.
Corruption has always been a critical aspect of Russian military operations. This began centuries ago when the monarchy ruled Russia and continued into the Communist era. After the Cold War ended in 1991, the corruption survived and continues to plague Russian government and military operations to the present. Some things never change in Russia, and corruption is one of them.