Why Ukraine has carried out incursion into Russia’s Kursk region
- Ukrainian troops have advanced around 30 km into the Russian territory of the Kursk region
What is happening
- Although no independent reports from the region are available, some suggest that Ukraine has already captured more land since the beginning of the attack than it did over the entire course of last summer’s counter-offensive.
- Russian forces are currently engaged with Ukrainian troops near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez which are about 25 km and 30 km from the Russia-Ukraine border
- Around 76,000 people have been evacuated from the region, where a state of emergency has been declared by local authorities, according to Russia.
Reason for the attack
- Military experts have said there could be several political and military reasons behind it.
- Some experts suggest that Ukraine wants to seize as much land as possible to strengthen its position on the negotiation table.
- Ukrainian land captured by Russia could be exchanged for Russian land conquered by Ukraine.
- It could also be possible that Ukraine wants to capture the Kursk nuclear power plant as a payback for Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant it has been under Moscow’s control since 2022.
- The Kursk nuclear plant is just 60 km away from the Ukrainian border.
- The incursion could be part of Ukraine’s effort to force Russia to redeploy its troops away from the east; the attack has come just weeks after Moscow captured several villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.