The 50-kilometer Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is Ukraine’s largest operation into Russia, which has caught Russia by surprise andraised Putin’s ire. A week has passed and Russian soldiers are unable to expel the Ukrainians from their territory. This incursion has dealt a severe blow to Russian public opinion and has led to the evacuation of 88,000 people in the Kursk region and 11,000 in the border region of Belgorod.

One week after the incursion, Ukrainian President Zelensky has described this operation as “the catastrophe of their war”. Words that have not gone unanswered, Putin has assured that “The enemy will undoubtedly receive a worthy response and all our objectives will undoubtedly be achieved.”

And with all the artillery and attention in the Donbas region, “where a thousand people are left every day” As Blas Moreno, editor-in-chief of El Orden Mundial, explains, and with hardly any progress, this incursion has unleashed the anger of the Russian president, who has even reprimanded the governor of the Kursk region: “Listen to me, Aleksei Borisovich, the military is already in charge of communicating the extent of the advance. You communicate the socio-economic consequences and the aid to the population.”

Kyiv is not expected to withdraw from Kursk, forcing Putin to divert troops from Donbas to the region so as not to go from being the conqueror to being the conquered.