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Ukraine’s push into the Kursk region exposed Russia’s vulnerabilities. Here’s what to know.
A daring Ukrainian military push into Russia’s Kursk region has seen Kyiv’s forces seize scores of villages, take hundreds of prisoners and force the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians in what has become the largest incursion into Russia since World War II.
In more than a week of fighting, Russian troops are still struggling to drive out the invaders.
Why did the Russian military seem to be caught so unprepared?
Russia’s regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod share a 720-mile border with Ukraine. That includes a 152-mile section in the Kursk region. This frontier had only symbolic protection before Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. It’s been reinforced since then with checkpoints on key roads and field fortifications in places, but building solid defenses has remained a daunting task.
The most capable Russian units are fighting in eastern Ukraine, where they have been pressing offensives in several sectors, with incremental but steady gains. Moscow has used the regions to launch airstrikes and missile attacks on Ukrainian territory but doesn’t have enough land forces there.
Because of the porous border and manpower shortages, there have been earlier forays into the Belgorod and Bryansk by shadowy groups of pro-Kyiv commandos fighting alongside Ukrainian forces before they pulled back.
Russia’s drones, surveillance equipment and intelligence assets are focused in eastern Ukraine, helping Kyiv to covertly pull its troops to the border under the cover of deep forests.
Retired Gen. Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, criticized the military for failing to protect the border.
“Regrettably, the group of forces protecting the border didn’t have its own intelligence assets,” he said on a channel of his messaging app. “No one likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that all is good.”
Ukrainian troops participating in the incursion reportedly were told their mission only a day before it began. That secrecy contrasted sharply with last year’s counteroffensive, when Kyiv openly declared its main goal of cutting the land corridor to Crimea, which President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014. That military action failed as Ukrainian troops trudged through Russian minefields and were pummeled by artillery and drones.
Ukrainian troops faced no such obstacles entering the Kursk region.
Battle-hardened mechanized units easily overwhelmed lightly armed Russian border guards and small infantry units consisting of inexperienced conscripts. Hundreds were taken prisoner, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainians drove deep into the region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic.
The operation resembled Ukraine’s September 2022 counteroffensive in which its forces reclaimed control of the northeastern Kharkiv region after taking advantage of Russian manpower shortages and a lack of field fortifications.
Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who led the Kharkiv operation two years ago, is now Ukraine’s top military officer. Russian forces in Kursk answer to Gen. Alexander Lapin, who commanded Moscow’s forces in Kharkiv in 2022 and was criticized for that debacle. But his ties to the chief of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reportedly helped him survive and even get a promotion.
Syrskyi claims Ukrainian forces advanced across 390 square miles of the Kursk region, although it’s not possible to independently verify what exactly Ukrainian forces effectively control.
“Thus far, the Russians have demonstrated tactical and operational shock, which has led to a slow tactical response and has allowed the Ukrainians to continue exploiting their breakthrough of the Russian defensive lines,” said retired Australian Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan in an analysis.
The Russian military command initially relied on warplanes and helicopters to try to stop the onslaught. At least one Russian helicopter gunship was shot down and another was damaged.
At the same time, Moscow began pulling in reinforcements, which managed to slow Ukraine’s advances but failed to completely block Ukrainian maneuvering through vast forests.
“Russia seems to do quite poorly when it has to respond dynamically in a situation like this,” said military analyst Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment in a podcast. “Russian forces do far better when they’re operating with prepared defense, fixed lines, more on positional warfare.”
Kofman noted the Russian reserves arriving in the Kursk area seemed to lack combat experience and had trouble coordinating with each other.
In one instance, a military convoy carelessly parked on the roadside near the fighting area shortly after the incursion began, and it was quickly hit by Ukrainian rockets.
“That’s the kind of mistake the Russian forces along the line of control typically don’t make,” Kofman noted.
What are the risks for Ukraine of its incursion into Russia?
Kyiv remains tight-lipped about whether it intends to seek a foothold in the Kursk region or pull back into Ukrainian territory. The first option is risky because supply lines extending deep into the region would be vulnerable to Russian strikes, analysts say.
“The main risk is that the Ukrainians choose to try and consolidate and hold ground that lengthens the front line,” said Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services institute in London.
Ryan, the retired Australian general, warned that “losing a large number of forces in this scenario also makes it a strategic and political liability.”
That would “squander the very positive strategic messaging that has been generated by the Ukrainian surprise attack into Russia,” he said. Ukrainian forces could try to retreat to a more defensible area near the border or fully pull back to Ukraine, he said.
The incursion already has boosted Ukraine’s morale and proven its ability to seize initiative and take the war to Russian soil. Kyiv hasn’t explained what the goal of the incursion is, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’s considering setting up military offices in the Kursk region to help coordinate military and humanitarian efforts there.
“This Ukrainian operation represents a very significant effort on the part of the Ukrainians to reset the status quo in the war, and change narratives about Ukraine prospects in this war,” Ryan said.
contributed to this report.
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After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies
A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.
Brittany Leake, a Memphis officer and Demetrius Haley’s former girlfriend, testified during the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal orders for someone to give officers his hands.
The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo in a group chat comprising Haley, Leake and her godsister, she testified. Prosecutors displayed the photo for the jury. It showed Nichols with his eyes closed, on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.
Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he definitely needs to go to the Med.”
The Med is shorthand for Memphis’ trauma hospital.
The fatal beating, caught on police bodycams and street surveillance cameras, has sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they pulled over Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.
Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on trial after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering. Their trial began Sept. 9 and is expected to run three to four weeks.
George Walker IV / AP
The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on police video, which was released publicly. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
During her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after she saw it and that sending such a photo is against police policy.
“I wasn’t offended, but it was difficult to look at,” she said.
Leake said Haley had sent her photos before of drugs, and of a person who had been injured in a car accident.
Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to show inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his court testimony. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators, to try to cover up and “justify what I did.”
But Martin said he told the truth to FBI investigators after he pleaded guilty in August, including statements about feeling pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop, but not being able to see if Nichols was trying to get his gun. Martin has testified that he said “let go of my gun” during the traffic stop.
Martin Zummach, the attorney for Justin Smith, asked Martin if he knew of any reasons why Nichols did not simply say, “I give up.”
“He’s out of it,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”
Martin testified that the situation escalated quickly when Haley pulled his gun and violently yanked Nichols from his car, using expletives and failing to tell Nichols why he had been pulled over and removed from the vehicle.
“He never got a chance to comply,” Martin said.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggled with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
An autopsy report shows Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived at the location after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.
Guy said he was not told about the medical problems Nichols had experienced before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, seated on the ground and unresponsive.
Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and it “felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.
In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.
Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies after Nichols died. They have not been criminally charged.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.
Federal prosecutors have previously recommended a 40-year sentence for Martin. A date has not been set in state court yet.
Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it wasn’t long before it became a part of his lifestyle,” states the resolution approved by the city council. He had a tattoo of his mother’s name.
“Tyre Nichols’ family have been praying for justice and accountability from the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement when the trial began.
Boeing’s CEO said Wednesday that the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week.
Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the people who would be required to take time off without pay starting in coming days include executives, managers and other employees based in the U.S.
“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” Ortberg said in a company-wide message to staff.
Boeing didn’t say how many people will face rolling furloughs, but the number is expected to run into the tens of thousands. The aerospace giant had 171,000 employees at the start of the year.
About 33,000 Boeing factory workers in the Pacific Northwest began a strike Friday after rejecting a proposal to raise pay by 25% over four years. They want raises of at least 40%, the return of a traditional pension plan and other improvements in the contract offer they voted down.
Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The strike is halting production of several airplane models including Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company gets more than half of the purchase price when new planes are delivered to buyers, so the strike will quickly hurt Boeing’s cash flow.
Ortberg said selected employees will be furloughed for one week every four weeks while retaining their benefits. The CEO and other senior executives will take pay cuts during the duration of the strike, he said, without stating how deep the cuts will be.
All work related to safety, quality, customer support and certification of new planes will continue during the furloughs, he said, including production of 787 Dreamliner jets, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.
Ortberg said in a memo to employees that the company is talking to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about a new contract agreement that could be ratified.
“However, with production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” he said.
Boeing’s chief financial officer warned employees earlier this week that temporary layoffs were possible.
The company, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, but has most of its commercial-airplanes business located in the Pacific Northwest, is also cutting spending on suppliers, freezing hiring and eliminating most travel.
Despite two full days of talks assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the union said Wednesday that no resolution had been reached and no additional negotiations were scheduled, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.
Striking workers are picketing at several locations in the Seattle area, Oregon and California. The union, which recommended the offer that members later rejected by a 96% vote, is surveying the workers to learn what they want in a new contract. The union’s last strike at Boeing, in 2008, lasted about two months.
If the walkout doesn’t end soon, Boeing’s credit rating could be downgraded to non-investment or junk status, which would make borrowing more expensive. Shortly after the walkout began Friday, Moody’s put Boeing on review for a possible downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely.
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