Russia faces a "difficult fight" to retake territory lost in Ukraine's Kursk incursion, Deputy CIA Director David Cohen said on Aug. 28.
"We can be certain that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will mount a counteroffensive to try to reclaim that territory," he told a national security industry conference in Maryland in comments reported by Reuters.
As Kyiv's incursion into Kursk Oblast entered its fourth week, Ukraine is in control of 1,294 square kilometers (around 500 square miles) and 100 settlements, including the town of Sudzha, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 27. The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
"I think our expectation is that that will be a difficult fight for the Russians," Cohen said.
The CIA deputy director also added that Putin"is not only going to have to face the fact that there is a front line now within Russian territory that he's going to have to deal with, he has to deal with reverberations back in his own society that they have lost a piece of Russian territory."
In his evening address on Aug. 28, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine continues to "expand the territory under our control in the designated areas near the border of Ukraine," but did not provide specific details.
Citing Russian milbloggers, the Institute for the Study of War on Aug. 28 said that Ukrainian forces "are now attempting to dig in and hold select areas they recently seized."
Speaking at the Ukraine 2024 Independence forum in Kyiv on Aug. 27, Zelensky said that the ongoing Kursk incursion is one part of a plan for victory that he would present U.S. President Joe Biden during a meeting in September.
Daria Svitlyk
