The Ukrainian offensive in Russia's Kursk region on August 6 was a risky gamble. But it has notably enabled Kyiv to regain the initiative and boost troop morale despite the Russian advance into Donbas. The armed forces now claim to control around 1,000 km2, and to have "stopped" the Russian counteroffensive, although Moscow says it has regained ground. With this operation, Ukraine is taking on a role unseen since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022: That of occupying army.
The law of war is clear: "Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army," states Article 42 of the Hague Conventions. "From a legal point of view, this is effectively a military occupation," said Oleksandr Merezhko, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament.
However, the member of the governing coalition and professor of international law would prefer to use "another term" for the Kursk operation. "The word 'occupation' has too many negative connotations," he said. "Russian occupation is a crime because Moscow is the aggressor, whereas Ukrainian occupation is a response to that crime."
The legality of the Kursk operation is not disputed by the international community: It is in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter on the right of self-defense in the event of armed aggression. "We think that Ukraine is fighting a legitimate defensive war against an illegal aggression and, in the framework of this legitimate right to defend itself, Ukraine is entitled to hit the enemy wherever it finds necessary: On its territory, but also on the territory of the enemy," said Peter Stano, the EU's foreign affairs spokesperson, on August 7, the day after the incursion.
Dmytro (first name changed), a 41-year-old soldier, also dislikes the term "occupation," which is widely associated with Russian war crimes. The commander of a reconnaissance unit, deployed in Kursk at the start of the operation, prefers to speak of "transferring the war to Russian territory." "I don't consider myself an occupier, because we're not terrorists like the Russians," said the serviceman, who agreed to testify on condition of anonymity, at the edge of a wood, after dark, during his visit to Kyiv.
The Ukrainians insist that their objective is quite different from Russia's: It is not to annex territory but to defend themselves by establishing a "buffer zone" along the border on the Russian side, to limit bombardments on the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. Kyiv's troops do not intend to stay indefinitely. However, as Volodymyr Zelensky declared on September 3, they want to "hold" this sector for as long as necessary, as part of the "plan for victory" – unless Russian troops dislodge them first.
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