Kursk region operation: Ukraine's sole path to stabilizing frontlines – expert Zhmailo

Dmytro Zhmailo, co-founder and executive director of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, discussed this strategy during an interview on Espreso TV.

“Everyone witnessed the Ukrainian airstrikes on bridge crossings. At this point, Ukrainian forces aim to secure advantageous positions, deploy artillery, and air defense systems to draw out Russian reserves. The Russians are reluctant to redeploy their forces pressing in the Pokrovsk direction to the Kursk region. However, our deep strikes on Russian territory are delivering quick results. This is our strategy. Stabilizing the front line depends on these asymmetric actions, and it is the operation in the Kursk region,” he stated.

Previously, it was reported that Russian forces had transferred elements of the 11th and 44th Army Corps to the Kursk region, units that had previously supported the offensive in the Vovchansk direction. Zhmailo indicated that the responsibility for neutralizing the Ukrainian bridgehead now lies with the Russian Northern Group.

“This involves the Leningrad Military District, which has until recently threatened NATO's eastern flank. The entire burden now falls on this district. The Russian command has agreed to redeploy units from this district, including the 200th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, currently engaged in the Kramatorsk direction, and the 80th Brigade, operating in the Kherson direction,” he added.

According to Zhmailo, the Kherson direction is now a lower priority for Russian troops, who will likely pull manpower from within Russian territory itself.

“The issue of involving additional military personnel is off the table for now, with Russian propaganda actively influencing public opinion. Currently, the Russians are focusing on containing our Ukrainian troops by pulling up units and avoiding direct frontal assaults. Instead, they are using artillery and airpower to encircle Ukrainian positions. But we are also expanding our operational zone,” Zhmailo concluded.

Ukraine’s cross-border incursion in Russia’s Kursk region

On August 6, the authorities of Russia's Kursk region stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly tried to break through the Russian border, but were pushed back. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that "the Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group retreated to its territory.”

On August 7, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin convened the Russian military leadership to discuss the situation in the Kursk region, which he called a "large-scale provocation." At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community to "strongly condemn the Kyiv regime's criminal attacks on Russian territory."

On August 10, President Zelenskyy called the operation in the Kursk region “pushing the war into the aggressor's territory.” At night of the same day, the authorities introduced a counterterrorism operation in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions of Russia.

On August 14, it became known that the Ukrainian military had formed a “sanitary (buffer) zone” for self-defense in the Kursk region of Russia. It is planned to open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, and if necessary, military commandant's offices will be established in the Russian region.

At a meeting with the president on August 15, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukraine had established the first military commandant's office in the Kursk region to provide humanitarian aid to local residents.

At the same time, Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, together with the military, is currently working on a possible route for a humanitarian corridor for civilians from Kursk to Sumy.

On August 15, The Independent reported that about 2,000 Russian servicemen were captured during an operation by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region.

On Friday, August 16, a bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region was destroyed.

That same day, the Ukrainian military released rare footage showing the first hours of their offensive operation in the Kursk region.

O August 17, military journalist Andriy Tsaplienko reported that Ukrainian forces had entered the village of Korenevo in the Kursk region.