The Russian and Ukrainian armies continue to advance their pawns in the Kursk region, since the Ukrainian incursion. Meanwhile, Moscow is intensifying its efforts in eastern Ukraine.
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In Ukraine, both sides are continuing their war of attrition. kyiv is consolidating its territorial gains in Russia, in the Kursk region, without however making significant progress in recent days. Russia, for its part, is intensifying its war effort in the Pokrovsk region, in eastern Ukraine.
Pushing as deep into Russian territory as possible is not the Ukrainians’ current preferred option. The major city of Kursk, for example, seems out of reach for kyiv, as a young officer fighting in the region confides.
“The whole city of Kursk will be difficult to control. It takes a lot of men for that. Then, it would also take people to administer it. In any case, we do not want to manage these territories, he assures. “We do not have the goal of reclaiming more enemy lands to hold them for years. At the moment, it is just a sanitary zone to protect Sumy and Kharkiv.”
Creating sanitary zones, pushing Russian artillery back into its territory, increasing incursions at several points on the border: these are kyiv’s current priorities. The Ukrainian army is also trying to slow down the Russian advance in the Pokrovsk region. “There, the Russians have deployed significant resources, about 50 000 soldiers. They advance about a kilometer every three to four days. Will they reach Pokrovsk? ?, asks Oleksy Hetman, a military expert and former high-ranking officer of the Ukrainian army. We hope not, thanks to the significant fortifications that have been built around the city.”
According to the expert, the Pokrovsk region geographically represents 5% of the front line, but concentrates half of the active fighting currently in Ukraine.
