Branko Marcetic
Only a few weeks ago, the Ukraine war seemed to be reaching some kind of diplomatic endgame: The war had long settled into what was more or less a bloody stalemate; Washington was distracted by events in the Middle East; and even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had long rejected any negotiations if they meant giving up territory, had publicly softened his stance on the idea.
Then the Kursk invasion happened. Barreling through miles of poorly defended and sparsely populated Russian borderlands, Ukrainian forces went close to eight miles into Russian territory. They took control of 28 settlements, according to Moscow (many more per Kiev), and forced more than 121,000 residents to be evacuated. Maybe most importantly, the Ukrainians have inflicted another painful humiliation upon President Vladimir Putin, while giving a shot in the arm to their own flagging morale at a time when Moscow seemed to hold all the cards.
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