Mike Eckel
Ukraine has repeatedly crossed the border into Russia since the start of Moscow’s all-out invasion: intelligence operatives doing clandestine operations; drones targeting airfields hundreds of kilometers away; ragtag, unofficial militia groups raiding border villages.
This time, it’s different.
Hundreds of uniformed Ukrainian troops, backed by armored vehicles and other heavy equipment, this week punched into Russia’s Kursk region north of the Ukrainian city of Sumy. As of August 9, the troops had seized control of about 600 square kilometers of territory, and more than two dozen settlements, according to local officials, pro-war bloggers, and open-source intelligence reports.
The head-snapping incursion — the largest by Ukrainian forces since Russia launched the invasion in February 2022 — comes as Ukrainian troops struggle to hold back Russian advances in at least three locations across the 1,100-kilometer front line further to the south. Russian troops are nearing a major Donbas highway whose capture would threaten Ukrainian supply lines along the entire front.
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