Attractive as that goal is to Kyiv’s leaders, they may have to accept that, in the process of achieving it, they could lose Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar. In that case, both President Zelenskyy and Oleksandr Syrskyi, his military chief, might find themselves under political pressures of their own,
And they each hope that this bout of arm-wrestling will improve their chances in those battles to come, while also persuading their respective backers in the rest of the world that military success really is within their grasp. Only one of them will turn out to be right,
The Russian military command may have redeployed limited elements intended to reinforce Russia's priority offensive operation in the Pokrovsk direction to defend against the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk Oblast,
The situation is difficult in the direction of the enemy's main attack. But all the necessary decisions at all levels are being made without delay,
The rate of advance is likely to slow as Russian ground forces enter Pokrovsk's built-up areas,
This will likely make it more difficult for Ukrainian Armed Forces to resupply and manoeuvre resources quickly to several key strongholds between Chasiv Yar and Vulhedar,
Current territorial gains are too limited to counterbalance territorial losses in Donbas at the negotiating table,
Ukraine took a gamble in Kursk by committing its limited reserves and also pulling various units off the line to participate in the operation,
Putin doesn't care about Russian people, and he doesn't care about a few villages in Kursk Oblast,
For the incursion to be effective, Ukrainian personnel and military hardware had to be diverted from (Ukraine's) southeast, which in turn allowed Russian forces to score territorial gains across Donbas,
At a minimum, it provides Russia with more advanced positions from which to conduct future operations, and puts more distance between its rear and front line,
When looking at the next six months, much hinges on the U.S. election and both Russian and Ukrainian mobilization efforts,
Putin is not diverting forces from the axis attacking toward Pokrovsk,
He is trying to use forces from somewhere else, or he is just saying, 'OK let's deal with Kursk later—but now Pokrovsk is more important,
The risk for Ukraine is not only those units not available for defense elsewhere to act as a stabilization force in Donetsk,
We should see the fruits of Kyiv's mobilization bill by the winter, and we'll see if the Kursk offensive engenders a wider Russian mobilization,
Reconnaissance and search operations are continuing to destroy opponent's sabotage groups in the forests,
We're going to Vinnytsia first,
Unfortunately, the Kursk offensive has no direct and big impact actually on the operations of the Russians in the Donbas region,
They are throwing all available forces at Pokrovsk to achieve a certain propaganda effect,