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Politico published and many other mass-media reposted an article Satellite images show new Russian military buildup near Ukraine. It is illustrated with two satellite photos of Yelnya and also mentions Bryansk and Kursk.

Being myself born in oblast next to Kurskaya, I can't help but remember that there were hours of the road after Kursk to the Ukrainian border and that Bryansk and Yelnya are even further away. Much further. At least entire oblast further.

So how close are those three points to actual Ukrainian border as compared with say, Moscow?

Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
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Oleg V. Volkov
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    There are many ways on the Internet to measure distances. Use Google maps, for example. So why ask a question here instead of checking yourself? For example, the distance from Kursk to Donetsk is 463 km. – markvs Nov 08 '21 at 23:02
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    Russian troops entered Georgia from two different directions in 2008. – the gods from engineering Nov 09 '21 at 21:23
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    Basically Russia does this buildup whenever something in Ukraine pisses them off. In April it was Ukraine shutting some TV posts. https://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/84250 Now it's apparently them using some Turkish drones https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/04/europe/russia-ukraine-military-buildup-intl-cmd/index.html – the gods from engineering Nov 09 '21 at 21:57
  • @markvs Thanks, but I know distance without Internet, as mentioned in question (250km as the crow flies, for the reference). I want to hear other people's explanation on why exactly it is considered close. People from Western context. – Oleg V. Volkov Dec 05 '21 at 08:21

2 Answers2

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A cursory glance at OpenStreetMaps shows that both the Kurskaya Oblast and the Bryanskaya Oblast border Ukraine directly. Car direction routes from the centres of the towns mentioned to what seems to be the closest road border crossing to Ukraine clock in at around 112 km (Kursk) and around 144 km (Bryansk) (sadly, the links do not include the route itself).

Concerning Yelnya, the article puts it 'near the Belarus border' which seems equivalent at 114 km to Belarus. Yelnya is in the Smolenskaya Oblast which borders Belarus.

The distances to Moscow are approximately 371 km (Yelnya), 527 km (Kursk) and 383 km (Bryansk).

I wasn't able to discern why the article mentions the units apparently deployed to Yelnya and what the Belarus border has to do with any of this. However, units gathering around 100 km from a border by road – especially in a country as large as Russia – does suggest that this is something to keep an eye out for and a potential cause for concern. This seems like a good 'first gathering' distance: close enough to get there quickly yet far enough to not be in immediate danger – and being near larger cities is likely beneficial for supply purposes.

That said, the article mentions 'areas around Kursk/Bryansk', so how close it is to the cities and the actual distances to the borders are not immediately obvious. Indeed, from glancing at OpenStreetMaps it seems like these two are the only larger towns in their respective oblasts so 'area around' could technically mean anywhere in the oblast.

Jan
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  • More important is the distance from Yelnya to Kyiv. – the gods from engineering Nov 09 '21 at 21:42
  • @Fizz I disagree for two reasons. 1: The distance to Kyiv is somewhat irrelevant for all the analyses as the question asks about the distance to Ukraine. Sure, an invasion would be over once Kyiv is captured but it's red alert from the moment an armed vehicle or person crosses the border. 2: I checked again and while the article does lump pictures of Yelnya in with statements about Kursk and Bryansk, it does not at any point describe Yelnya as close to the Ukraine and I understand the two movements being discussed somewhat separately. That's why I did Yelnya-Belarus. – Jan Nov 10 '21 at 12:33
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Here's a map. The pink arrow points to the town in the Politico article, Yelnya. [Location]. The rectangle shows the area of hostilities (where the breakaway / self-declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk are located). The "unexpected" direction can be seen.

Map

Pete W
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