The Ukrainian military’s Kursk Region incursion was a high-stakes gambit aimed at forcing Russia to divert troops from a key sector of the front line, but Moscow didn’t take the bait, Ukraine’s top commander has admitted.
“One of the tasks of conducting an offensive operation in the Kursk direction was to divert significant enemy forces from other directions, first and foremost the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsk directions,” Colonel General Aleksandr Syrsky said at a press conference in Kiev on Tuesday.
“Of course, the enemy understands this, so it continues to focus its main efforts on the Pokrovsk direction, where its most combat-ready units are concentrated,” he continued.
“The enemy is trying to withdraw units from other directions, while in the Pokrovsk direction, on the contrary, it is increasing its efforts,” Syrsky claimed, describing the situation in Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsk as “quite difficult” for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Located in the west of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsk sit on key supply roads linking Donetsk with Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye. Pokrovsk is a major logistics hub for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who have heavily fortified the city since 2014. Russian forces have been conducting heavy attacks on Pokrovsk in recent weeks, with American officials acknowledging on Monday that the Russians have been making “incremental gains” toward the city.
Ukrainian forces invaded Russia’s Kursk Region on August 6, in the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022. The advance was quickly halted by the Russian military, but fighting in the region continues, and Ukrainian troops still hold a number of settlements in the border area.
According to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry, the incursion has cost Ukraine more than 6,600 service members, 73 tanks, and more than 500 armored vehicles.
The Ukrainian leadership has been inconsistent in explaining its goals for the Kursk operation. Initially, the office of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky said the capture of Russian territory was necessary to intimidate the Russian public and obtain a stronger position during eventual peace talks with Moscow.
The messaging later shifted, with Zelensky claiming that he aimed to create a buffer zone inside Russian territory and deter Moscow from ordering an attack on Ukraine’s Sumy Region, which borders Kursk.
However, anonymous sources have told The Economist that Syrsky was on the cusp of being fired in early August, and ordered the Kursk operation out of “desperation.” Faced with mounting losses in Donbass, Syrsky’s main objective “was to draw [Russian] troops away from the Donbass stranglehold, and to create bargaining chips for any future negotiation,” the British magazine reported last week.