Except it doesn’t really given that Ukrainian lines are collapsing all across the front while it’s doing stunts to convince people in the west that it has fighting potential. The very fact that Ukraine has to fight for the media is one of the biggest handicaps. Russian army is able to fight at its own pace without having to worry about optics. Meanwhile, AFU is forced to constantly show the west that it’s still capable of fighting. This has resulted in Ukraine getting drawn into disasters like Bakhmut, the fabled summer offensive, and now Kursk. In each case, Ukraine ends up losing huge numbers of troops and machinery that cannot be replaced without actually gaining anything strategically.
It seems like they took Kursk without losing much. Now they have a bargaining chip for peace talks and possibly diverted attention away from the main front. The western reporting may also get under Putins skin.
The only thing it managed to do is to sabotage attempts at mediation and proposed partial ceasefire. Seems like factions in Kiev are started to tear itself apart, or their government branches does not coordinate to this point, or Uncle Sam’s hand is still squezing them hard enough to force such obvious blunder (or all three in combination).
Except it doesn’t really given that Ukrainian lines are collapsing all across the front while it’s doing stunts to convince people in the west that it has fighting potential. The very fact that Ukraine has to fight for the media is one of the biggest handicaps. Russian army is able to fight at its own pace without having to worry about optics. Meanwhile, AFU is forced to constantly show the west that it’s still capable of fighting. This has resulted in Ukraine getting drawn into disasters like Bakhmut, the fabled summer offensive, and now Kursk. In each case, Ukraine ends up losing huge numbers of troops and machinery that cannot be replaced without actually gaining anything strategically.
It seems like they took Kursk without losing much. Now they have a bargaining chip for peace talks and possibly diverted attention away from the main front. The western reporting may also get under Putins skin.
What are you talking about, they made it less than a third of the way to Kursk
The only thing it managed to do is to sabotage attempts at mediation and proposed partial ceasefire. Seems like factions in Kiev are started to tear itself apart, or their government branches does not coordinate to this point, or Uncle Sam’s hand is still squezing them hard enough to force such obvious blunder (or all three in combination).