All of a Sudden Someone Is Practicing Massed Infantry Assault in Kursk

So far the Russians, Ukrainians, have not been known to do this

The video below from a Russian channel shows an assault on Ukrainian positions in Kursk (the video is slightly sped up):

You can see at least 40 men running toward the enemy across open snow and the nearby cornfield. Groups of 3 (fire team size) seem to run in parallel to each other. They sometimes stop, perhaps to lay covering fire. They are being hit by mortar and drones.

40 may not sound like much, but for an attack on foot that is actually a huge number for this war.

Russian attacks sometimes (rarely) involve dozens of men at a time, but when they do it’s always a mechanized assault with BMPs and tank support.

They do also carry out infantry-only attacks, but in that case they’ll attack with as few as 15 men at a time, and even then they’ll advance in a phased manner with about 3 men making the run at a time.

3 years of lessons and adjustments have led the Russians to practice ever smaller attacks.

A signature Russian attack these days sees 2-3 men trying to make it across the no-man land at a time, often on a fast vehicle like a motorcycle, and diving into a dugout or foxhole near the enemy. They then wait for the next fire team to attempt the same. Provided 10 or so eventually make it across alive they will then jointly attempt trench clearing.

On a transparent battlefield, surprise is impossible, so a massed assault is guaranteed to draw dense precision fires. If conversely, only 3 men are attempting to make it across a field at a time they will also not catch anyone by surprise, but at least they are a more difficult target that is man-for-man more expensive to destroy and forces the defender to ration his fires.

Yet all of a sudden, 1025 days into the war, we have videos coming out of Kursk (and only Kursk) showing the exact opposite. Scenes of massed light infantry that are totally unprecedented for this war.

I see at least two possibilities so far:

1. The Russians in Kursk are experimenting with a new approach that goes against everything they have learned so far.

2. A force still practicing old-school light infantry tactics straight out of WW2 (or the Korean War) has entered the fight.

Six soldiers all bunched up running from a Ukrainian drone. A scene that you would never see at Pokrovsk

The video below is from a different sector of Kursk, not an assault, just a leisurely march to take positions, but why again the unprecedented and risky density?

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