Russia abandoning combat positions in Kursk area of Ukraine

 The Kyiv Independent:

Russian military strongholds in Kursk Oblast are largely abandoned and only imitating defensive positions, the National Resistance Center reported on Sept. 23.

The Center said that local partisans shared the locations of Russian positions along the Sumy Oblast border with Ukrainian forces.

"The latest aerial reconnaissance data shows that almost all of the strongholds are deserted, with most of them overgrown with bushes," the Center reported.

The Center published photographs showing aerial views of the positions, which are reportedly meant to imitate actual defensive facilities.

On Aug. 20, the Center reported that the Russian government spent 10 billion rubles on the construction of the false fortifications.

According to the Center, the Russian strongholds have been abandoned because the majority of personnel have been transferred to front-line positions in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts.

On Sept. 18, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Russian troops at the front appeared to have incurred heavy losses due to Ukrainian counteroffensive advances.

 There have also been reports that Ukraine has used fake positions to get the Russians to expend their shrinking amount of ammo on them.  I suspect that Russia also abandoned the Kursk area because it lacked the resources needed to defend it.  With the Russian ruble now worth around a penny in US currency the expenditure on the ruse may look larger than reality.  Russia does claim drones were shot down over Kursk, Bryansk oblasts.

See, also:

Russians attempt to cross border in Kharkiv Oblast and set up fortifications – Ukraine's State Border Guard Service

And:

 Ukrainian forces have broken through in Verbove, top general says

The general leading Ukraine’s counteroffensive along the southern front line says his forces have broken through in Verbove – and predicts an even bigger breakthrough to come.

“On the left flank [near Verbove] we have a breakthrough and we continue to advance further,” Oleksandr Tarnavsky told CNN Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen during an interview on Friday, though he conceded his troops were moving slower than anticipated.

“Not as fast as it was expected, not like in the movies about the Second World War,” he said. “The main thing is not to lose this initiative (that we have). And, well, not to lose it in practice, with actions.”

The general’s claim is the latest indication by Ukrainian officials that inroads are being made on the southern front in the war with Russia.

Ukrainian forces claimed in recent weeks to have penetrated the “first line” of Russian strongholds in the Zaporizhzia region, in a sign that Kyiv was edging closer to Moscow’s sprawling network of fortified trenches along the southern front.

Russian-appointed officials in occupied Zaporizhzhia have given a different picture of the fighting. CNN is unable to verify the battlefield reports of either side. However, open-source analysis of available video suggests that some Ukrainian units have crossed through an important line of Russian defenses near the village of Verbove.
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The ISW reports: 

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Russian forces continue to expend significant combat power on counterattacking to hold their current positions and appear to be resisting the operationally sound course of action of falling back to prepared defensive positions further south. The Russian command constructed a multi-echeloned defense in southern Ukraine that would have allowed the Russian command to deploy defending Russian forces in depth throughout subsequent defensive layers. Russian forces have instead expended considerable amounts of manpower, materiel, and effort to hold the forwardmost defensive positions in southern Ukraine and have only withdrawn to subsequent defensive positions at the direct threat of Ukrainian advances.[25] Russian forces’ elastic defense requires that one echelon of Russian forces slows a Ukrainian tactical advance while a second echelon of forces counterattacks to roll back that advance. Counterattacking requires significant morale and relatively high combat capabilities, and the Russian military appears to rely on relatively elite units and formations to counterattack, likely at the expense of these forces’ degradation.[26]

Some Russian and Ukrainian sources have acknowledged that some Russian counterattacks in the wider Robotyne area have been senseless.[27] A defense in depth should afford these units respite from further degradation through withdrawal to a subsequent defensive layer. This withdrawal would allow the Russian command to conserve critical combat power for more operationally significant counterattacks and efforts to attrit attacking Ukrainian forces, although the task of conducting an orderly withdrawal under fire or pursuit is quite challenging and risky. American military analysts Michael Kofman and Rob Lee recently assessed that Russian forces have underutilized the depth of their defense and have yet to execute “a true defense in depth” in which Russian forces trade “space for attrition” and that the Russian command’s decision to defend forward has allowed Ukrainian artillery units to attrit Russian forces.[28] ISW concurs with this assessment. ISW has observed a concerted Ukrainian effort to attrit Russian forces even as Ukrainian forces make significant tactical gains, and the Russian resistance to withdrawing to defensive positions further south is likely compounding the asymmetric attrition gradient Ukrainian forces are trying to create. Russian counterattacks aimed at holding forward positions have been tactically significant, but it remains unclear if these counterattacks will have lasting operational importance.

The Russian military command may be ordering these counterattacks to buy time, but it is unclear how the Kremlin intends to use time bought at such a price. Russian forces appear to be unwilling to surrender tactical areas and are focusing instead on fighting for every meter instead of benefiting from the depth of their prepared defenses....
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And:

 Double blow for Putin as Black Sea navy attacked and Ukrainian forces ‘punch through Russian front line’

And:

 Defence Forces destroy over 50 units of Russian military equipment on Tavriia front

And:

 Injured Russian soldiers are being sent back to the front line without being treated amid manpower and ammunition shortages, report says

And:

 Ukraine must now take the war into Russia

And:

 Russian commanders killed in Storm Shadow missile strike

And:

 Ukraine has 'completely defeated' a Russian naval infantry brigade of the Black Sea Fleet — for a second time, says think tank

And:

 Machine gun-wielding judges fight off Russian drone attacks from Kyiv rooftops, report says

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The judges joined air defense efforts last fall when Russia started firing Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine. The volunteers defend their capital with machine guns, strategically positioning themselves on Kyiv's rooftops.

Their contributions complement the sophisticated Western air defense systems that have succeeded in thwarting many of the multiple attacks on Kyiv, per The Associated Press.
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And:

 Russians claim drone attack on 2 Russian oblasts, houses and office building damaged