Ukraine’s Kursk attack surprised Russia and perhaps some of its backers

BRUSSELS — Ukraine has stolen the battlefield initiative from Russia with its cross-border offensive into the Kursk region. But its Western backers have, for the most part, remained curiously silent about the surprise move.

A week on, as Russian forces scrambled to respond to the sneak attack after days of fierce fighting, Ukraine’s top military commander said that his troops were in control of 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory.

The move also appeared to surprise many of Ukraine’s supporters at NATO and the European Union. It’s unclear how extensively they were briefed ahead of the offensive, if at all, even though U.S. President Joe Biden insists that he’s been kept abreast of developments since.

“I’ve spoken with my staff on a regular basis probably every four or five hours for the last six or eight days,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday. The Ukrainian offensive, he said, is “creating a real dilemma for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”

Pressed for more, Biden said only: “That’s all I’m going to say about it while it’s active.”

In Brussels, European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali also declined to go into detail, saying that “the European Union is not involved, and is not commenting on, the operational developments on the front line.”

“We are fully standing behind Ukraine’s legitimate exercise of its inherent right for self-defense and efforts to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty, and to push back and fight the illegal aggression by Russia,” she told reporters.

Kyiv’s aims are not entirely clear. Some analysts speculate that the incursion aims to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in future peace negotiations. Military experts agree that it should provide some relief for embattled Ukrainian troops by drawing enemy soldiers away from the frontline.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry says the operation is to protect against long-range strikes launched from Kursk. “Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said, according to local media.

The ministry claimed that Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes from the Kursk region in recent months using missiles, artillery, mortars, drones and glide bombs.

The mostly muted and sometimes contradictory response from Kyiv’s backers is confusing, although the allies appear to tacitly agree that Ukrainian troops should be allowed to defend territory, including through attacks across the border.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has clearly backed the operation, even though he was not consulted about it beforehand.

Russian actions in Ukraine bear “the hallmarks of genocide, inhumane crimes, and Ukraine has every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyze Russia in its aggressive intentions as effectively as possible,” Tusk said.

NATO declined on Wednesday to comment on the Kursk operation. But its outgoing Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, has regularly argued that Ukraine has the right under international law to defend itself from an aggressor, and that its Western allies are within their rights to help Kyiv do that.

Legal experts agree that “international law provides for a state that is defending itself also to defend itself on the territory of the attacker. That is clear from our point of view, too,” German Defense Ministry spokesperson Arne Collatz said Monday.

However, the world’s biggest security organization is also extremely wary of being drawn into any wider war with Russia, which has a formidable nuclear arsenal. Some allies have balked at allowing Ukraine to use the arms and ammunition they send to strike on Russian soil.

In an interview published on Monday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani insisted that the weapons his country sends “cannot be used to attack Russia on its territory.” Ukraine has already used U.S. arms to strike inside Russia after Washington eased restrictions.

Part of the silence might also be due to the fact that Ukraine’s Western backers have promised to help the country defend itself, but not to actually seize victory, partly due to concern about what might happen to Russia and its vast nuclear arsenal should Putin be defeated.

The former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, has criticized what he sees as a policy of “escalation management” and a lack of commitment among Western allies to help Ukraine win.