Ukraine's Kursk incursion shows that Russia can't attack and defend at the same time, former US ambassador says

• A former US ambassador to NATO said Ukraine's attack on Kursk exposed Russia's "limited capabilities."
• Kurt Volker said that it shows Russia can't attack and defend at the same time.

Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region shows that Russia can't simultaneously attack and defend, according to a former US ambassador to NATO.

Russia "can't attack Ukraine and defend Russia at the same time, it has had to make a choice," Kurt Volker said at the GLOBSEC conference in Prague on Saturday, per the Kyiv Independent.

Volker added that Russia is "going to have to move forces from Ukraine to defend Russia," and that this is "something we should be taking advantage of with long-range systems to hit them while they move."

Since Ukraine's surprise attack on Kursk on August 6, Russia has struggled to respond quickly and effectively to Ukraine's offensive, partly due to its complex military structures and a lack of contingency plans.

The Kremlin's military response has exposed weaknesses plaguing its military, including poor command and control.

Last week, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian military, said Ukrainian forces had claimed close to 500 square miles of Russian territory, forcing Russia to redeploy 30,000 troops to Kursk.

Ukrainian forces were still conducting assaults in Kursk over the weekend, but with no confirmed advances, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank reported.

CIA deputy director David Cohen said at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington last week that Russian forces are in for a "difficult fight" if they want to retake Kursk.

According to Volker, Ukraine's incursion into Kursk "demonstrates that Russia is at the limit of its capabilities."

ISW analysts made a similar observation in an update on Saturday.

They said Russia may have redeployed limited Russian forces to Kursk that had been intended to strengthen a key part of the front line in eastern Ukraine.

This, they said, suggests that Ukraine's incursion is affecting Russian operations in all sectors of the battlefield.