CIA believes Ukraine seeks to maintain control over captured territories in Russia's Kursk Oblast

Russia will launch a counteroffensive to reclaim territory in Kursk Oblast, which Ukrainian troops have captured, but Russian forces will face a "difficult fight," the CIA says.

Source: CIA Deputy Director David Cohen, writes Reuters, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: Cohen stated that the significance of the Ukrainian operation, which encompassed 777 square kilometres of Russian territory, remains to be seen.

On 6 August, Ukrainian troops broke through Russia's western border into Kursk Oblast, launching an unexpected offensive that has continued to this day.

While Kyiv has stated that it has no intention of annexing the territory it has captured, Ukrainian troops are erecting defensive lines and appear to intend to keep "some of that territory for some period of time," Cohen said at an intelligence and national security meeting.

Quote: "We can be certain that Putin will mount a counteroffensive to try to reclaim that territory. I think our expectation is that that will be a difficult fight for the Russians," Cohen said.

He stated that Putin will have to "deal with reverberations back in his own society" due to the loss of Russian territory.

Ukraine claims to have captured 100 settlements during its incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast, while Russian forces continue to advance in eastern Donetsk.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he will present the prepared plan for Ukraine's victory, which takes into account various directions, to US President Joe Biden in September and will also pass it on to US presidential candidates.

The media previously reported that Ukraine plans to hand over a list of targets deep in Russian territory to Joe Biden’s administration in order to convince the US to lift the ban on using American weapons to strike Russian territory.

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