Ukraine's offensive in Kursk will show the West that escalating attacks against Russia is "nothing to be afraid of", says a former foreign policy adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Igor Novikov says Kyiv is calling Russia's bluff and giving Ukraine a chance to avoid defeat by switching from "meat grinder" warfare to an asymmetrical one.
And putting Ukrainian troops on Russian soil has major psychological upsides, he added.
"The main goal of this is to destabilise the Russian elites. Russia is not a monolith. Obviously there's Putin on top, but there are many different power players there and hopefully this will awaken some of them to the fact that Putin has gone too far."
Turning to the Russian population, he says: "Now the war has come to them.
"It's a wake up call to them to think and seriously consider what they stand for and what their government stands for."
Back in Ukraine, the move has been "magical" for morale.
"People got really fatigued of this meat grinder-style war that had no bright light at the end of the tunnel.
"Now Russia's on the back foot and people are happy about it."
"This offensive was going to put pressure on Putin. It's going to show the West that escalating against Russia is actually a winning strategy and nothing to be afraid of. That Russia is bluffing most of the time."
