Why Russia has struggled to respond to Ukraine’s incursion in Kursk region

Russia struggles to dislodge Ukrainian forces from Kursk, lacking manpower and resources, while Ukraine faces logistical challenges.

After three weeks of fighting, Russia is still struggling to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, a surprisingly slow and low-key response to the first occupation of its territory since the Second World War.

It all comes down to Russian manpower and Russian priorities. With the bulk of its military pressing offensives inside Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to lack enough reserves for now to drive out Kyiv’s forces.

President Vladimir Putin does not seem to view the attack as a grave enough threat to warrant pulling troops from eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, his priority target.

“Putin’s focus is on the collapse of the Ukrainian state, which he believes will automatically render any territorial control irrelevant,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

Months after launching the full-scale invasion in 2022, Mr. Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as part of Russian territory, and their full capture has been a top priority. He declared in June that Kyiv must withdraw its forces from parts of those regions it controls as a condition for peace talks, a demand that Ukraine rejects.

Slow advance

Even as Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk on August 6, Russian troops continued their slow advance around the strategic city of Pokrovsk and other parts of the Donetsk area.