Ukraine war: Kursk offensive has taken the war into Russia and put Putin on the back foot – for now

By Patrick Bury, Reader, Politics, Languages & International Studies Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB), University of Bath

The Ukrainian advance into Russia’s Kursk oblast took almost everyone by surprise. Perhaps not the Russians stationed on the border, who reportedly tried to warn of a Ukrainian troop buildup, but the rest of us who watch the conflict closely did not think the Ukrainian army – under increasingly severe pressure in Donetsk oblast further south – had the spare manpower and kit to launch this operation.

So far it has been successful, advancing up to 30km in some directions…

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