The Ukrainian army is slowing the pace of its advance into Russian territory, begun on August 6. It is, however, consolidating its positions along natural obstacles. Kyiv claimed on Thursday, August 22, to have seized an additional Russian village in the Kursk region, and to have taken prisoners. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Sumy, a few kilometers from the border and the fighting. Earlier, the Ukrainian army claimed to control 1,263 square kilometers and 93 settlements, including the town of Soudja, a small Russian town in the border zone.
The military governor of Sumy oblast, Volodymyr Artioukh, told Zelensky that the number of cross-border artillery strikes and civilian casualties had fallen in that area of territory. But the strategic objective is not to form a buffer zone to protect Sumy. Cornered in a defensive position for almost a year and retreating in the Donetsk region, this operation has enabled Kyiv to demonstrate that Ukrainian armed forces could regain the initiative and lead an offensive.
Politically, the operation puts Russian President Vladimir Putin in an uncomfortable position with regard to his populace, while the myth of Russian territorial inviolability has been undermined on the international stage. "The naive and illusory concept of the 'red line' [brandished by] Russia, which has dominated the assessment of the war by certain partners, has collapsed in recent days, somewhere near Soudja," claimed Zelensky on Monday.
If Ukraine hopes to hold this territory long enough to turn it into a bargaining chip, its forces must, nevertheless, "dig in and will have to hold out for a very long time, because Kyiv does not have the means to force Russia to negotiate according to its timetable," said Michael Kofman, one of the shrewdest military analysts on this conflict, speaking at the microphone of the podcast "War on the Rocks."
To force Russia to redeploy part of its forces attacking the Donetsk region – the Kremlin's main objective – to Kursk, Ukrainian troops "need to hold a defensible buffer zone that won't require them to commit too many forces, because they're already stretched thin along the front, and it's going to be very difficult to add another front to Kursk, while holding the rest. And this will lead to real opportunity costs in 2025," noted the American expert, estimating that 15,000 to 20,000 military personnel are involved in the offensive.
To obstruct Russian military logistics, Ukrainian aircraft and artillery have already destroyed three bridges spanning the Seim River, using American (Himars and GBU-39) and French (AASM guided bombs) weapons, explained Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko.
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