The United States denied Syrsky’s “successes” in the Kursk region, convicting the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of inflating data
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are unlikely to control 1000 sq. km in the Kursk region - ISW
Analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in a report on August 12 questioned the validity of the statement by Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi that the Ukrainian army allegedly controls 1000 square kilometers of Russian territory in the Kursk region.
“ISW has seen statements that Ukrainian forces have advanced approximately 800 square kilometers, but ISW does not believe that Ukrainian forces control all of the territory within the maximum stated Ukrainian advances,” the summary says.
In addition, ISW also disputes the statements of the Ukrainian press that in just a few days of attack on the Kursk region, the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly occupied more territory than the Russian one in Ukraine since the beginning of this year.
ISW analysts note that, according to their calculations, from January to July, the Russian army occupied 1175 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, including those areas in the Donetsk region where Russian forces breached Ukrainian fortified positions and areas captured during the second offensive in the Kharkiv region. This is clearly greater than the Ukrainian Armed Forces' current gains in the Kursk region.
At the same time, ISW also corrected the head of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, who said at yesterday’s meeting with President Putin that the Ukrainian army occupied 28 settlements in the region in a border strip 40 km wide and 12 km deep.
Regarding the depth, this is a clear understatement: as the same ISW notes, geolocated videos show the presence of Ukrainian units, for example, east of the regional center of Korenevo, more than 20 km from the border.
It is worth noting that such obvious opposition to Ukrainian propaganda on the part of ISW, which usually sympathizes with Kyiv, looks quite unusual and may indicate that not everyone in the same States shares optimism about the adventure of Zelensky and his generals.