On August 6, the Ukrainian army made a surprising move. It pushed into the Russian region of Kursk, which is to the north and west of where the main conflict is being fought. This was no small incursion, either: Ukraine captured 386 square miles of Russian territory.

NEW: Ukraine’s operation in Kursk Oblast has allowed Ukrainian forces to at least temporarily seize the battlefield initiative in one area of the frontline and contest Russia’s theater-wide initiative.🧵(1/7) pic.twitter.com/13ppuSwCMa

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) August 12, 2024

This move surprised both Western allies and the Kremlin. Russian troops in those areas proved unready, undertrained, and easy to overwhelm. It also marks the first incursion into Russian soil since World War II — an embarrassing fact to the Kremlin, which had to admit to 28 villages being under Ukrainian control. Some 120,000 Russians have been displaced, and it seems the Ukrainians intend to hold the territory if they can.

What was the purpose of this particular move by Ukraine? There are several possible motives.

First, capturing Russian territory gives Ukraine a bargaining chip with future hypothetical peace negotiations. Dictator Vladimir Putin even made the comment, “It appears the enemy is trying to improve its negotiation positions.” Russia’s bid for peace talks has been dismissed outright up to this point because Putin wants to keep the areas he has taken since 2022. This, of course, is a nonstarter for Kyiv. Holding or capturing more Russian territory would definitely put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine in a better position for potential peace talks.

It also puts more pressure on Putin with his maneuvering of troops. Right now, he is not throwing his best at the invaders. Rumor has it that he is using conscripts to stave off the Ukrainian invasion. According to the Institute for the Study of War, “Russian authorities appear to be largely relying on Russian conscripts, and elements of some regular and irregular military units pulled from less critical sectors of the frontline to address the ongoing Ukrainian incursion.”

This is a problem for Putin and puts him on tender hooks with his people because he made a promise to the mothers of these young draftees that they wouldn’t be near the fighting. As National Review points out, “The more young Russian boys, in hastily deployed and ill-trained units, die in Kursk, the more precarious the political dynamic might grow for Putin and his regime. And casualties may yet prove to be severe if the Russians decide to throw thousands of untrained young men at the Ukrainian salient.”

Second, it also provides prisoners for exchange. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Prisoner exchanges are a priority for the Ukrainian public, especially given survivors’ harrowing accounts of abuses suffered in Russian custody. Russia has tortured 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the head of the United Nations human-rights monitoring mission in Ukraine told Dutch media this month.”

Third, their invasion may have been intended to lighten the pressure on the eastern front, which Russia has been bombarding relentlessly. If that was the intention, sadly, it has failed. Russia has dug in and continued its aggressive offensive. The New York Times quotes Ukraine National Police Brigade press officer Artem Dzhepko, who admits, “Our guys do not feel any relief.” Dzhepko also reported as many as 10 daily Russian arial bombardments.

Finally, this pushing of the fighting into Russian territory is making the war more real for the Russian people. Up until this point, they were only losing their men on the Ukrainian fields of battle. Now it is in their backyard. It must have struck a blow to their overall morale.

Between the Ukrainians finding a soft spot in the Russian line, the pressure placed on Putin politically with the deaths of conscripts, and waning Russian morale, this may bring about a speedier end to a bloody conflict — a conflict that President Joe Biden’s weakness on the foreign policy front caused.