"Their calculation was to stop our offensive actions in key parts of the Donbas. The result is known… They did not achieve stopping our advance in the Donbas."
So said Vladimir Putin as he "mocked" Ukraine's attempts to turn the tide of the 30-month-old war with a cross-border raid into Russia's Kursk region, said The Times. With Russia advancing towards Ukraine's strategically important city of Pokrovsk, a critical transport and logistics hub in the eastern Donbas region, it appears that Volodymyr Zelenskyy's gamble may not be paying off.
What do the commentators say? By seizing territory in Kursk, Kyiv hoped it would be able to divert Russian troops away from Pokrovsk, the site of a key railway station and several major roads, said General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces. However, the reverse had happened.
"The enemy is trying to divert forces from other sectors, but in the Pokrovsk sector, is doing the opposite and only increasing its forces," Syrskyi said, although President Zelenskyy insisted the Kursk attack had slowed the fighting.
While seizing Russian territory was a political success, said The Times, it now "looks like the wrong kind of distraction when viewed from the Donbas". Losing Pokrovsk would both impact Ukrainian morale on the front line and give Russian troops access to the whole of the region's Donetsk area, "one of the Kremlin’s long-stated aims".
"Pokrovsk is a very important hub, a centre of defence," military expert Mykhaylo Zhyrokhov told Ukraine's Radio NV. "If we lose Pokrovsk, the entire frontline will collapse."
What next? The Centre for Defence Strategies, a Ukrainian think tank, has predicted that Russians troops could reach Pokrovsk by mid-September. "For Ukraine, that is not good news," said The Telegraph. Russian forces have already increased their action in areas around the city and are "poised to conquer a significant swathe of Donetsk".
But Ukrainian action could spread. A build-up of troops has been reported around the Belgorod region of the Russian border and on the northern border of Belarus. But after the "humiliation" of Kursk, said The Economist, Russia will now be watching for any other attack. "There will be no new element of surprise." |