Ukraine’s surprise cross-border incursion seen as a tactical reply to Russia’s grinding gains
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Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s army has in recent months made an unrelenting effort to punch through Ukrainian defenses at selected points along the front line in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin’s forces have sustained their slow and grinding momentum despite heavy losses of troops and armor and for only modest gains. But those gains are piling up as the summer rolls on. Russia appears bent on chalking up some battlefield triumphs in the war before the weather turns. And its latest push is wearing down Ukraine’s already depleted army. Ukraine added a new twist to the war by invading Russia’s Kursk province in the largest incursion of its forces into Russia in the war.