This week, Ukraine's military-political leadership began revealing the objectives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' (UAF) Kursk offensive operation.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, one of the goals of the operation was to force Russia to redeploy significant forces to the Kursk region to counter UAF activities. "The Russians have begun counteroffensive actions in the Kursk region, and everything is going according to our Ukrainian plan," Zelensky stated on September 13. He noted that Russia concentrated about 40,000 troops there, which significantly impacted the situation in the Donetsk region, where the Russian advance slowed considerably and even halted in some areas. Additionally, the "shell shortage" on the Donetsk front has shifted in Ukraine's favor, with the previous ratio of 1 to 12 in favor of Russia now reduced to 1 to 2.5. Zelensky also mentioned that the Kursk offensive thwarted Russia’s plans to create "buffer zones" from Ukraine’s east to north.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrainian forces broke through another line of defense in the Kursk region, advancing south from Veseloe, which is southwest of the village of Glushkovo and about three kilometers from the border.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon assessed Russia's counteroffensive in the Kursk region as "insignificant." On September 12, Pentagon spokesman General Patrick Ryder remarked during a briefing, "We see Russian units attempting some counteroffensive actions in the Kursk region. At this stage, I would describe them as minor." According to combatants in the region, Russian forces, while liberating their own territory, are employing the same "scorched-earth" tactics used in Ukraine, marked by heavy missile, artillery, and bombing strikes that practically erase towns and villages.
"Aside from the political dividends that emerged in the first month of the offensive near Kursk, this UAF operation is significantly impacting the military situation in Ukraine's favor, particularly in the Donetsk direction. Thus, the UAF's Kursk offensive can be considered the most prominent and important element of the 2024 spring-summer military campaign," according to analysts from the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.
