Ann Marie Dailey
Countless pundits have denigrated Ukraine's Kursk offensive, and nearly all the criticism has focused on geography: Sudzha, Pokrovsk, Kursk. But this misses the point. The offensive is not about geography. It's about geometry.
Ukraine's Kursk offensive was a tactical masterstroke that changed the geometry of the battlefield by extending Russian lines and obliging them to rethink their force allocation assumptions. This changes the military calculus. It has led to immediate tactical and operational benefits, and if Ukraine can consolidate the gains it has made, it holds the possibility of strategic benefits, as well.
Since Ukraine's failed 2023 counteroffensive, the front line has remained relatively static.
Russia established an operational tempo that enabled small, consistent gains, and it seemed poised to continue this grinding war of attrition indefinitely. When an enemy is making consistent gains, something must be done to disrupt their operations. Ukraine's Kursk offensive did just that.
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