Ukrainian Army Chief of Staff Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday that the Kursk offensive has been effective and that the “strategy is working” to prevent Russian forces from taking more territory in eastern Ukraine.
Syrskyi told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the Kursk operation “reduced the threat of an enemy offensive” and prevented a Russian attack. He said Moscow had amassed tens of thousands of troops in the region, including experienced airborne troops.
He also said Ukrainian forces have stopped Russian advances in eastern Ukraine, including around the strategic railway city of Pokrovsk.
“For the past six days, the enemy has not advanced a single meter toward Pokrovsk. In other words, our strategy is working,” he said. “We have taken away their ability to maneuver and deploy their reinforcement forces from other directions … and this weakening has certainly been felt in other areas.”
Syrskyi’s comments come as Ukrainian forces face a massive Russian push in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The troops are approaching not only Pokrovsk but also the cities of Khasiv Yar and Toretsk, both of which could help Russia advance further if captured.
On August 6, Ukraine launched a surprise invasion of the Russian region of Kursk, a move that caught Moscow by surprise and was initially hailed as a brilliant counteroffensive that showed the Kremlin’s weak borders.
But nearly a month after the invasion, Ukraine has still not achieved one of its main goals: diverting sufficient numbers of Russian troops from the front lines to Kursk to relieve the pressure there, prompting criticism over whether the gambit worked.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that about 60,000 Russian troops have been withdrawn from Ukraine, but that this has had no noticeable impact on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been more optimistic, praising his troops for their advance in Donetsk.
Ukraine captured about 100 settlements and about 1,300 square kilometers of territory and took hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.
It has also destroyed Russian military assets and is protecting the northeastern regions of Kharkov and Sumy. Meanwhile, it is in Kursk, where Russia has still not ousted Ukrainian troops.
Syrskyi said that since Russia has surpassed Ukraine in manpower and armaments, its forces must resort to “means that make maximum use of terrain features, engineering structures, and also technical superiority.”
“We cannot fight the same way they do,” he told CNN.
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