Ukraine Deploying Drone Operators in Kursk Amid Shortages: Report

Vladimir Putin is scrambling to respond to Kyiv’s incursion into the Kursk region, but his forces are making gains in the Donetsk region where Ukraine is taking an unconventional approach to address troop shortages, it has been reported.

There has been much speculation about the objectives of Ukraine’s surprise push into Russian territory on August 6 amid concerns of Kyiv overextending its troops and gaps left at the frontline in Donetsk where Russia is said to be advancing.

The Ukrainian open-source intelligence site Deep State said on Saturday that Russia was continuing to “develop its tactical success” in the direction of Pokrovsk city where an evacuation order has been declared along with surrounding areas.

Pokrovsk is an important hub which would be a critical gain for Russia. Deep State said that as Russian forces were trying to gain a foothold in high-rise buildings in Novohrodivka, 12 miles to the southeast with Ukraine trying to push Russia back towards Krasnyi Yar as Kyiv is looking at all options to shore up its troop numbers.

“During this extremely difficult situation, very strange processes take place,” the X channel said, according to a translation. It said Ukraine’s 151st mechanized brigade, “whose command neglects personnel, is sending drone pilots…to the trenches to hold positions.”

These transfers are taking place “despite the direct order of the commander-in-chief prohibiting the use of pilots in other activities,” the post said, alleging that the unit commander’s attempt to prevent this resulted in his removal and transfer to another position.

“We hope that the higher command will pay attention to this situation and let the commander of the 151 brigade understand the price of pilots and the zero effectiveness of such orders,” the post added.

The journalist Leonid Ragozin referred to Deep State’s post about the alleged use of drone operators to make up for the lack of foot soldiers in a post on X, which said these “kind of stories make one ponder the wisdom of Kursk operation. As is the dire situation in Pokrovsk agglomeration.”

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment.

It comes as the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it was assisting with the evacuation of children, families, the elderly, and people with reduced mobility, from Pokrovsk and neighboring towns with the frontline in the Donetsk region now only six miles away.

Evacuation trains are stopping in the city of Dnipro while some people head to relatives in safer regions and others seek shelters for internally displaced people in the western part of the country.

“I left everything behind,” said Raisa Epshtein, an 83-year-old resident from Myrnohrad said in comments emailed to Newsweek by MSF. “It’s terrifying; everyone is on edge. My hometown is being destroyed.”

MSF paramedic Olha Tatsenko said that many of those fleeing were suffering from serious medical problems. “No one knows what the future holds.”