Ukraine’s surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk Oblast prompted Moscow to divert several thousand troops from occupied Ukrainian territories, potentially weakening its war effort, CNN reports.
The Kursk incursion began on 6 August, catching the Russian military off guard. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed that in 10 days, Ukrainian troops seized over 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory, forcing tens of thousands of Russians from their homes.
The surprise of the Ukrainian incursion also impressed American observers, mainly due to the secrecy maintained around its planning, US officials told CNN.
However, with Russia believed to have hundreds of thousands of troops on the frontline in Ukraine, the impact of diverting a few thousand may be limited in the short term, according to a senior US official and a senior European intelligence official as per CNN.
CNN sources familiar with Western intelligence indicate that Russia is primarily bolstering Kursk’s defenses with untrained conscripts from elsewhere in Russia rather than moving its larger and better-trained units from Ukraine.
“It is apparent to us that Mr. Putin and the Russian military are diverting some resources, some units, towards the Kursk Oblast to ostensibly counter what the Ukrainians are doing,” a US National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, told CNN.
However, Kirby emphasized that this doesn’t indicate Russia abandoned its military operations in northeastern or southern Ukraine.
A primary goal of the operation appears to be creating “strategic dilemmas” for Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding troop allocation, CNN sources claim. Despite the operation’s initial success, US and Western officials caution that Ukraine is unlikely to hold the captured territory for long.
Some officials also expressed concerns that Ukraine uses its most experienced troops in this operation, creating vulnerabilities in other parts of the frontline, potentially allowing Russia to gain more ground inside Ukraine as Russians continue advancing in Donetsk’s direction.
The US also did not change its policy for Ukraine on the use of long-range Western-supplied weapons inside Kursk, however, not due to escalation risks but rather because of the limited supply of long-range missiles available for Ukraine. US officials believe these weapons would be more effectively used to continue targeting Russian-occupied Crimea, CNN reports.
Related:
- Politico: Kursk incursion catches Putin off guard, shifts tactical narrative
- Ukraine boosts morale and negotiating power with Kursk incursion, says Lithuanian minister
- Ukrainian forces capture hundreds of Russian soldiers amid Kursk incursion
- The Kursk incursion logic
