Mick Ryan said that consolidating gains in Russia’s Kursk region could the “highest risk option” for Kyiv.
Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region could hand Kyiv leverage in negotiations with Russia, but defending gains could also be a high-risk strategy, according to a former general who has outlined three options for the operation.
Thousands of citizens in Kursk and Belgorod oblasts have been evacuated on Monday as Ukraine’s forces made apparent advances deeper into Russian territory, six days after launching an offensive.
Kyiv has been tight-lipped about the operation apart from a reference to it by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said on Saturday about actions “to push the war into the aggressor’s territory.”
Amid speculation about what Ukraine’s forces plan to do in the incursion, retired Australian Army major general Mick Ryan said one option could be for Kyiv to consolidate on the terrain seized so far and defend it ahead of negotiations.
However, Ryan said that this would be the “highest risk option” for Ukraine because the multiple salients of the operation could be “easily cut off and destroyed by even a semi-competent Russian commander.
