CNN reports:

Russia had been planning to launch a new attack on Ukraine from the Kursk region before Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday.

In his first television interview since becoming military chief in February, the general told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he believed the Kursk operation had been a success.

“It reduced the threat of an enemy offensive. We prevented them from acting. We moved the fighting to the enemy’s territory so that [the enemy] could feel what we feel every day,” Syrskyi said, in a rare interview that offered a candid assessment of the war.

Last month, Ukrainian forces stormed into Kursk in a cross-border incursion that caught even American officials by surprise. It signaled that, despite Russia’s advantage in terms of men and armor, its military has vulnerabilities. [Continue reading…]