KYIV — Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia stretched into a fifth day Saturday in what analysts and Western officials said increasingly looked like a prolonged operation to divert Russian forces, raising questions about Kyiv’s ultimate aim as its forces pushed deeper into Russia’s Kursk region.
The move has turned the tables of this war on Moscow, which invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, and has been a morale boost for Ukrainian forces after Russia previously gained the strategic initiative on the battlefield. It could also be used as leverage in potential future negotiations with Moscow to end the fighting, analysts said.
“It’s not a raid, this is something different,” said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, former defense minister and chairman of Ukraine’s Center for Defense Strategies, an independent think tank.
“It’s not a question about staying there forever or for a long time, it’s an issue of trying to stretch out their forces,” he added. “I doubt that Ukraine’s leadership has these plans to occupy Russian territory and to hold it indefinitely.”
Though Ukrainian officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the assault, their soldiers fighting in Russia have started posting more videos and photos to social media that purport to show them in Kursk and, most recently, in a second Russian border region, Belgorod.
The military has otherwise adopted what is being referred to as a “regime of silence” for operational security — a tactic Kyiv used during its counteroffensive in Kharkiv in 2022.
Fighters from Ukraine’s 252nd Territorial Defense Battalion recorded a video, shared Saturday, standing outside a building identified as the village club in Poroz — a settlement in Russia’s Belgorod region less than two miles from the border. The Washington Post could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity or when it was taken.
if you force ruzzia to keep battlegroups along its whole border with Ukraine, it’s unable to concentrate those forces on the 0-line.
Good work Ukraine, keep safe, you brave fighters!
And military boost to Kyiv.
UA should announce the annexation of Kursk and Belgorod oblasts!
Well, I am NOT surprised at all about this honestly. And also the fact that Russia isn’t doing a damn thing about it.
Moscow or bust
We are seeing levels of I N F L A T I O N never seen before
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Ukraine appears to expand Russia incursion, in morale boost for ~~Kyiv~~ **The entire free world**
Paywall bad, article not quite readable
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Link to the same article without paywall via archive.org:
[Ukraine appears to expand incursion into Russia, in a morale boost for Kyiv](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/10/ukraine-belgorod-kursk-russia-occupied-war/)
KYIV — Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia stretched into a fifth day Saturday in what analysts and Western officials said increasingly looked like a prolonged operation to divert Russian forces, raising questions about Kyiv’s ultimate aim as its forces pushed deeper into Russia’s Kursk region.
The move has turned the tables of this war on Moscow, which invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, and has been a morale boost for Ukrainian forces after Russia previously gained the strategic initiative on the battlefield. It could also be used as leverage in potential future negotiations with Moscow to end the fighting, analysts said.
“It’s not a raid, this is something different,” said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, former defense minister and chairman of Ukraine’s Center for Defense Strategies, an independent think tank.
“It’s not a question about staying there forever or for a long time, it’s an issue of trying to stretch out their forces,” he added. “I doubt that Ukraine’s leadership has these plans to occupy Russian territory and to hold it indefinitely.”
Though Ukrainian officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the assault, their soldiers fighting in Russia have started posting more videos and photos to social media that purport to show them in Kursk and, most recently, in a second Russian border region, Belgorod.
The military has otherwise adopted what is being referred to as a “regime of silence” for operational security — a tactic Kyiv used during its counteroffensive in Kharkiv in 2022.
Fighters from Ukraine’s 252nd Territorial Defense Battalion recorded a video, shared Saturday, standing outside a building identified as the village club in Poroz — a settlement in Russia’s Belgorod region less than two miles from the border. The Washington Post could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity or when it was taken.
if you force ruzzia to keep battlegroups along its whole border with Ukraine, it’s unable to concentrate those forces on the 0-line.
Good work Ukraine, keep safe, you brave fighters!
And military boost to Kyiv.
UA should announce the annexation of Kursk and Belgorod oblasts!
Well, I am NOT surprised at all about this honestly. And also the fact that Russia isn’t doing a damn thing about it.
Moscow or bust
We are seeing levels of I N F L A T I O N never seen before