(this comment mainly aimed at people who don’t follow Ukraine news super closely)
It’s far too early to say whether Ukraine made the correct decision in launching its Kursk offensive rather than shoring up defenses in the Donbass, but in the past two weeks, Russian progress toward the **VITAL** supply hub at Pokrovsk (a city which is small but particularly vital for logistics; comparable to what Tokmak is for Russia) has accelerated.
The disruption of this supply route could force Ukrainian forces to pull back from Chasiv Yar and Toretsk to behind the Poltavka and Kryvyi Torets rivers, which presents two problems which are each quite serious
* 1. It would represent the largest loss in terms of total land area which Ukraine has experienced since the Spring 2022 offensive at the beginning of the war.
* 2. It would leave the it would leave the two largest cities in the Donetsk Oblast which remain under Ukrainian control, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, within range of Russian artillery.
The dream of one day capturing Sloviansk and Kramatorsk is to supporters of the Russian invasion what the dream of liberating Melitopol and Berdiansk is to supporters of Ukrainian sovereignty. It would be a huge deal. While the possibility that those cities actually falling is still quite a long ways off, that Russia is making very real progress toward obtaining its ambition really ought to be given more attention by those who support Ukraine but don’t follow the day-by-day events closely.
**Do not mistake Ukraine’s success in Kursk as a sign that Ukraine has already turned the tide of the war, or that Western aid does not need to be increased further**
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(this comment mainly aimed at people who don’t follow Ukraine news super closely)
It’s far too early to say whether Ukraine made the correct decision in launching its Kursk offensive rather than shoring up defenses in the Donbass, but in the past two weeks, Russian progress toward the **VITAL** supply hub at Pokrovsk (a city which is small but particularly vital for logistics; comparable to what Tokmak is for Russia) has accelerated.
The disruption of this supply route could force Ukrainian forces to pull back from Chasiv Yar and Toretsk to behind the Poltavka and Kryvyi Torets rivers, which presents two problems which are each quite serious
* 1. It would represent the largest loss in terms of total land area which Ukraine has experienced since the Spring 2022 offensive at the beginning of the war.
* 2. It would leave the it would leave the two largest cities in the Donetsk Oblast which remain under Ukrainian control, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, within range of Russian artillery.
The dream of one day capturing Sloviansk and Kramatorsk is to supporters of the Russian invasion what the dream of liberating Melitopol and Berdiansk is to supporters of Ukrainian sovereignty. It would be a huge deal. While the possibility that those cities actually falling is still quite a long ways off, that Russia is making very real progress toward obtaining its ambition really ought to be given more attention by those who support Ukraine but don’t follow the day-by-day events closely.
**Do not mistake Ukraine’s success in Kursk as a sign that Ukraine has already turned the tide of the war, or that Western aid does not need to be increased further**
!ping UKRAINE&FOREIGN-POLICY