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Due to lack of personnel, Russia sent "space infantry" to defend Kursk region - media
![](https://i2.obozrevatel.com/news/2024/8/18/ukraine-russia-kursk-gettyimages-2166080928.jpg?size=930x441)
The Russian military command has deployed its so-called space infantry to defend the Kursk region, where the Ukrainian army continues its offensive. Due to the lack of personnel, the motorized infantry "retrained" servicemen from the units of the Aerospace Forces, including personnel from nuclear warning stations and heavy bomber airbases.
This was reported by the Russian online publication Vazhnye Istori, registered in Latvia. It cites a source familiar with the situation in the Russian VKS units, adding that his words are confirmed by open data.
"The motorized rifle regiment was created in May-June as a border protection group. Its infantry arrived in the border areas a few weeks before the Ukrainian army's breakthrough, in mid-July," the statement said.
The source said that the unit included soldiers from security companies, as well as engineers, mechanics, and a small number of flight officers. All of them were assigned to the infantry from the Ukrainka airfield in the Altai Territory, Belaya airfield in the Irkutsk Region, and Engels airfield in the Saratov Region of the Russian Federation. However, these airbases are home to Tu-22M or Tu-95 heavy bombers, from which Russians launch missiles at Ukrainian cities.
The "space infantry" also includes military personnel from one of Russia's cosmodromes, personnel from special warehouses of the VKS and employees of Voronezh radar stations (the facilities are set up along the Russian border to warn of a nuclear strike).
According to the Russian publication, the "space marines" are already suffering losses in their attempts to repel the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive. For example, 22-year-old Russian Ilya Romanov, who was transferred to the infantry from the 28th Space Forces Arsenal in the Tambov region of the Russian Federation (a top-secret facility where rockets and satellites are stored), disappeared in the fighting near Korenevo.
"The VKS motorized riflemen were probably also in the convoy of vehicles burned by a HIMARS strike near Rylsk on the night of August 9. In the same place on the same day, 22-year-old VKS sergeant Vyacheslav Bondarenko, who was transferred from a heavy bomber air base in the Amur region, was wounded," the media stated.
As reported by OBOZ.UA, despite the lack of forces, the Russian command has not yet pulled its reserves from Donbas to transfer them to the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. Analysts explain that the risks of losing positions in the areas of Pokrovsk, Toretsk, and Vuhledar are too great for the aggressor to allow itself to withdraw from there.
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