Ukraine’s Kursk incursion: A fool’s errand that may allow a Russian victory

Andrew Latham

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In his classic text “On War,” the great philosopher of war Carl von Clausewitz introduced the concept of the “center of gravity.”

The center of gravity in war is “the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends. That is the point against which all [one’s] energies should be directed,” Clausewitz wrote. Political and military leaders should not imprudently disperse their military forces, sending them on fools’ errands beyond the decisive theater of conflict.

Unfortunately for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces seem either not to have read “On War” or forgotten this key insight.

Ukraine’s Kursk operation has, unfortunately, devolved into a fools’ errand — a glorified light-cavalry raid or medieval chevauchée that has diverted Ukrainian energies away from the center of gravity in the war against Russia. Rather than drawing Russian forces away from more critical battlefronts in Donetsk, the incursion has dispersed Ukrainian forces, allowing the Russian military to focus on the current center of gravity in this conflict and accelerate its push towards the strategically vital city of Pokrovsk.