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It has been more than a week since the Ukrainian army entered Russia's Kursk Oblast. The Ukrainian army did not rush to continue to penetrate and break through quickly, but chose to stabilize its position. According to Phoenix TV, on August 13, the Ukrainian army announced that it had advanced 1-3 kilometers that day and controlled about 40 square kilometers more Russian territory. According to estimates by Ukrainian media, the Ukrainian army now controls about 40-50 settlements in Kursk.

It is generally believed that the Ukrainian army's raid was the most successful operation since the Ukrainian army's counterattack in the fall of 2022. However, to this day, there are still many puzzling aspects of this Ukrainian army's operation. First of all, the outside world does not know how many troops the Ukrainian army has deployed. The Russian side claims that there are thousands of people, but the US media estimates that the Ukrainian army has deployed at least 5 brigades, with a total number of more than 10,000.

Secondly, the Ukrainian army suddenly chose Russia as the location for the counterattack, but after achieving certain results, it did not continue to infiltrate Russia to create greater panic, nor did it try to control the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant as analyzed by the outside world, but basically operated in the Sudja region. Some analysts believe that the real intention of the Ukrainian army's action this time is to prove to Moscow that the Ukrainian army is capable of carrying out similar military operations within the Russian border at any time, which will be one of the important bargaining chips for Kiev in future negotiations.

In addition, why did the Russian army appear to be unprepared for such a large-scale Ukrainian operation? Bloomberg, a US media outlet, quoted an informed source as saying that the Russian intelligence department actually knew about the Ukrainian army's plan to cross the border and the scale of the attack two weeks before the Ukrainian army officially took action, but Russian Chief of General Staff Gerasimov ignored this important intelligence and did not report it to Putin. This report by the US media was also reprinted by the Russian news agency TASS, which shows that it still has a certain degree of credibility.

Putin took a very tough stance on the situation in Kursk, ordering that the Ukrainian troops must be cleared out of the country, and sent his confidant, presidential assistant Jumin, to Kursk Oblast to command local military operations. Currently, the Russian border guards, reserve forces, and Chechen troops are responsible for fighting the Ukrainian troops in Kursk. However, according to information released by the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian army is withdrawing the main frontal forces from Zaporizhia and Kherson. It is expected that the battle in Kursk will not end in the short term.

The international community was generally surprised by the Ukrainian army's counterattack. It was originally thought that the Ukrainian army was already at the end of its strength and could not organize an effective counterattack, but this time it directly achieved effective results on Russian soil. After the Ukrainian army entered Kursk, China and the United States also made their positions clear. When answering reporters' questions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China stated that China's position on the Ukrainian issue is consistent and still calls on all parties to abide by the "three principles" to cool down the situation. This is enough to show that China's position is impartial and only stands on the side of peace.

The US responded by saying that Ukraine was allowed to use weapons provided by the US to carry out operations on the Russian border. However, Ukraine did not notify the US in advance before the operation, and the US did not participate in the operation, but the US is always paying attention to changes in the local situation, and Biden will receive briefings on the Ukrainian army's actions every few hours. It is unlikely that the United States was unaware of this matter, and now it has taken the initiative to draw a line, just not wanting to draw fire. For Biden, the greater the results achieved by the Ukrainian army on the front line, the more beneficial it will be to the Democratic Party's election situation, because on the issue of Russia and Ukraine, the two parties have obvious differences, and Trump and the Republican Party are not willing to strongly support Ukraine.

For Russia, the war has now entered a new stage. The biggest headache now is not how to achieve an overwhelming victory on the front battlefield, but the surprise attack that the Ukrainian army is hard to guard against. In addition to the operation in Kursk, the Ukrainian intelligence department is planning to launch another attack on the Kerch Bridge in Crimea. The frequent harassment of the Ukrainian army on the Russian border will increase the Russian people's perception of this conflict, and the social pressure on Moscow will increase. Therefore, if the conflict drags on for a long time, it may not be a good thing for Russia.