British military expert Lawrence Freedman, Honorary Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, told Liga that Ukraine’s ongoing Kursk incursion poses significant problems for Russia, effectively shifting the main battles to Russian territory.
Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast started on 6 August and the Ukrainian forces have been broadening their bridgehead for over week, with Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi earlier claiming over 1,000 square kilometers of territory inside Russia had been seized.
According to Freedman, Ukrainian generals fully understand the risks involved in the Kursk offensive, as well as its enormous potential.
“This creates big problems for the Russians, who turned out to be unprepared to defend their own land,” he said.
The professor emphasized that Russia had committed all its forces to attack Ukraine.
“If the Armed Forces of Ukraine can continue their work in Kursk region, it will inevitably draw Russian forces away from Donbas. It’s a shame for Russia that they are capturing foreign territories but cannot protect their own,” Freedman stated.
He noted that it’s currently difficult to predict what will happen in Ukraine’s Donbas or Russia’s Kursk Oblast. However, he stressed the importance of the fact that the main battles are now taking place not in Ukraine, but in Russia.
Freedman pointed out that this operation has a positive effect on Ukrainian morale after a difficult year for the country.
“It also hits Russian morale. Moscow looks silly. As if it’s cracking at the seams and doesn’t know what to do,” he added.
Moreover, the expert highlighted that this operation has helped Ukraine replenish its prisoner exchange fund and completely nullify the Russian narrative about peace, which implies Ukraine’s de facto capitulation.
“If we talk about new territorial realities, these are Russian lands captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, if Ukraine can hold them. This is an important change in the narrative,” Freedman said.
The professor also noted that the Kursk operation challenges many “red lines” created by Russia for Ukraine’s Western partners in this war. He suggested that the operation’s success could lead to the removal of unjustified restrictions on the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Currently, Ukraine is prohibited from using US- and UK/France-supplied missiles against deep rear targets in Russia.
In his opinion, the only restriction the West should impose on weapons is that they must be used “in accordance with the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions.”
Freedman emphasized that while no one assumes the operation will bring Russia to its knees or end Putin’s rule, it has created a significant shift in war narratives.
The original interview was published in Ukrainian, so the direct quotes in this article may not fully correspond to the exact wording from the interview due to double translation.
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