Well lets hope that pilots (and ground crew) from some of these nations that also operate (d) F16s think they have something to offer.
It worked damn well fro the free nations in WWII.

Denmark, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Jordan, South Korea, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela.

Historical note

The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in a Soviet victory. The Battle of Kursk was the single largest battle in the history of warfare.

The Soviets were prepared then and had built defences.

I'm not a historian so I don't know, but I imagine that the Soviet troops comprised of Ukrainians. Maybe that's why they won?!

Would the Ukrainians accept civvies with no mil training? Asking for a friend....

and not forgetting all the allied kit and assistance that allowed that victory.

Would the US strangle-hold affect foreign trainees who had undertaken any of their training in the US or with USAF trainers anywhere ?

There were two big differences between then and now.
The Russians knew two months in advance that the Germans were coming thanks to Enigma decrypts.
This allowed the Russians to dig in, in depth.

This time, the offensive forces knew 2 months in advance what they were planning to do, with no lapse in security.
The Russians definitely haven't dug in in depth and have no strategic reserve
The battle of Kursk lasted around a week with no perceived forward movement.
This one has captured approx 1000sqkm.

So apart from that they are quite similar!

https://www.lefigaro.fr/internationa...-kiev-20240813

The Ukrainian government has supposedly said that there will be peace as soon as Russia retreats from Ukrinian territory. So just usual to-and-fro.

A quarter of a million Ukrainians fought on the German side during WW2.......as they disliked the Russians more than the Germans!!

Google maps are not great at showing railroad tracks.

These do show railroad tracks but so far don't have a Kursk offensive update

https://militaryland.net/news/frontl...ort-july-2024/

There is a set of railway maps of Europe and Russia here :

https://websites.umich.edu/~yopopov/rrt/railroadmaps/

The relevant one for the immediate Ukraine attack in the Koronevo area towards Kursk is 03-08

https://websites.umich.edu/~yopopov/...3-08_kursk.gif

This I think is the most relevant one for the area east of the initial attack, including the railway line from Kursk to Belgorod, 07-06

https://websites.umich.edu/~yopopov/...6_belgorod.gif

As far as I can see Ukraine is working to advance along axis that it can support using any railways it can connect to, and/or in order to cut any railways that are useful to the Russians.

In the first category the railway northwards from the Ukraine border through Koronevo and much further north Lgov / Sherekino. If they can reach Lgov they also cut the E38 east-west highway and threaten the Kursk NPP. Getting that far is rather unlikely but who knows. However it may well be an objective to take Koronevo, have a left flank on the river and a railway feed from Ukraine.

This suggests they are making progress towards the E38


Extending with other thrusts from further south and/or east may allow penetrations onto the 07-06 railway net that has two further border crossings onto the UKR railway net


(there are some twitter links in this - they aren't showing yet - I'll see if they come through in due course)

Be careful pilots. You can’t trust da*n thing that guy says. End up in prison, especially if the election goes the wrong way.

Faultless, it reminds me of the British, Ukrainians are reviewing Russian restaurants online as they fall to Ukraine and saying that some of the car parking is a bit small and posting pictures of their tanks and columns in them.

​​​​​​​

Belarus to supply some equipment to Russia due to shortages, they are literally running out of everything.

Of course everything is fine in Russia… well maybe not in Moscow.

​​​​​​​

Moscow is moving troops from Kaliningrad, even.

Kalingrad to Kursk? Not impossible I guess. Just desperate.

'Running out' is one way of looking at it. A different take would be they are moving previously uncommitted equipment from an uncontested region without needing to withdraw, and weaken too much, resource from the existing front lines. As you observed, getting it to the Kursk area will be time consuming allowing Ukraine to progress and dig in further.

The Russian method of attack, as we know, is to raze everything in their path before advancing. This is exceptionally costly in both equipment and K/WIA losses currently running at 1000+ per day with this set to increase in the coming days/weeks. That also means recovery of Russian sovereign territory will require Putin destroying every town, village and settlement newly occupied by Ukraine forces.

​​​​​​ Internal pressure is mounting and informationn leakage will be impossible to control from the 100,000+ evacuees. The internal narrative will ramp up once they get their media act together but it will not stop dissatisfaction from growing and pretty much everyone in Russia will now be wondering where all of this is heading.

To all of the Russians who wanted a return to the cold war era with Soviet expansion: 'be careful what you wish for. You reap what is sowed '.

More from when they took prisoners.

​​​​​​​

Targeted fire taking out a Russian stronghold while leaving the area untouched.

Current joke doing the rounds in Russia….

Putin, after 10 days of Kursk catastrophe, summons Stalin’s ghost :

Stalin: “What’s happened?”

Putin: “Nazis are at Kursk! My army is beaten! What should I do?”

Stalin: “Do like me 1943. Send best Ukrainian troops to the front, and ask the US for arms!!!”….