Ukrainian military forces have solidified control over territory they hold in Russia’s Kursk region after launching a surprise incursion on August 6.

Meanwhile, there has been a decrease in active hostilities along the Donbas front. However, Russia continues its efforts to advance in the Pokrovsk region of eastern Ukraine.

“Nobody expected it to be so easy for Ukraine to effectively walk in through a practically undefended section of the Russian front,” Keir Giles, a Senior Consulting Fellow on the Russia and Eurasia Programme at London-based think tank Chatham House, told TVP World.

He said that Moscow’s response “has been almost to normalize this, to say, ‘well, this is part of being at war’.”

Referring to Russia’s reliance on “stealth mobilization,” drawing manpower from prisons and other unconventional sources, Giles said: “There’s only so far that Russia can go continuing down its current track before it starts to run out of people again.”

Despite Ukraine’s gains in the Kursk region, “Russia has shown no interest whatsoever in changing its overall objective from the destruction of Ukraine,” Giles added.

Watch the full interview by clicking on the picture above.