As Ukraine Presses an Advance Into Russia, Its Goals Remain Unclear

Ukraine pressed its advance into Russia for a fourth day on Friday, battling to capture a town near the border and sending small units to conduct raids further into the western Russian region of Kursk, independent military experts and pro-Kremlin military bloggers said.

The Ukrainian military also said on Friday that it had struck a Russian airfield in the Lipetsk region, which borders Kursk, hitting warehouses that contain guided aerial bombs.

The claim could not be independently verified, but the local Russian authorities said that a large drone attack had caused several explosions and that a fire had broken out at a military airfield. A state of emergency was declared in one of the districts in the area.

Kyiv’s surprise offensive into Russia, which began on Tuesday, has temporarily shifted the focus of the war, opening a new front inside Russia and prompting Moscow to scramble to halt the Ukrainian advance.

At the same, the operation has raised questions about whether it is worth the risk, given that Ukrainian forces are already stretched. It is also not clear whether the mission will help Ukraine improve its position on the rest of the battlefield, where it has been steadily losing ground for many months.

The Ukrainian military has enforced a policy of silence about the operation, and has not publicly acknowledged launching a cross-border attack.