‘Syrsky Didn't Just Go To Kursk Region For No Reason’

Ukraine's goal is to expand its zone of control.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have launched an offensive in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. Russian military bloggers are sounding the alarm, while Ukrainian sources are commenting on this event in a more reserved manner.

What is really going on there? The Charter97.org website asked Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer for the Ukrainian group “Information Resistance”:

— If someone thought that everything was over in the Kursk region, that's not true. There are certain objective factors for this. Of course, we won't hear any official confirmation from Ukraine in the near future. This is quite logical, as it is very important to maintain a ceasefire now. However, I would not trust absolutely everything that Russian propagandists and bloggers are relaying.

I would highlight several prerequisites that are currently taking place in the Kursk region. Firstly, the arrival of General Oleksandr Syrsky. It was clear that he had not just gone to such an extreme zone. Not just to take part in the awarding of fighters. This could have been done in Sumy or Kyiv, but here he was directly involved in a certain kind of preparation of actions.

— What actions?

— Before Donald Trump's inauguration, it was very important for Russia to almost completely regain control over the Kursk region. I emphasize that this is a fundamentally important task for them.

But they are not coping with it, having a group of 55 thousand in the Kursk region, while still using North Korean resources on a large scale. They have not achieved any significant results. And they will not achieve them until the inauguration.

The Ukrainian Defense Forces responded by starting to expand the zone of control. While Russia did not achieve certain indicators, Ukraine began to expand them. It is very important that an operation is now being carried out in a zone that was previously not under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

If we now look at where the advance is taking place, this is exactly the zone where there was no control as such. In August, Ukrainian reconnaissance groups operated in these locations, but they did not fully exercise control.

Another very important factor, which was also voiced by General Syrsky, is that during the Kursk operation, the Russian side lost 38 thousand personnel. When the operation itself began, the Kursk group in August 2024 was 10-12 thousand. That is, during this period, the group was increased by 40-45 thousand. It is important to understand that this is an update of the group. Now they are breaking even.

Zero potential is visible even by the efficiency of the Russian counteroffensive, which has begun. It has been slowing down all this time. It was this turning point of no potential that the Ukrainian Defense Forces took advantage of to significantly expand one or another control zone.

That is, Ukrainian fighters are now expanding the control zone. All versions that this will be a campaign against Kursk, against the Kursk NPP — this is all Russian propaganda.

Ukraine's task is to expand the control zone. At the same time, the Russian command still does not fully understand where else these control zones can expand. In what places exactly. They do not have full readiness for this.

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