For Kiev Oblast resident Olha Pavlovska, who gathers with her neighbors every week to discuss the often grim news from the front, the surprise incursion of Ukrainian forces into Russia's Kursk Oblast this month offered a rare moment of hope.
"This was a very brave and important step... to maintain the spirit in society,", says 51-year-old Pavlovska, while speaking in front of the church "St. Michael" in the center of Kiev.
Ukrainian leaders hailed the Aug. 6 attack, Russia's biggest incursion since World War II, as proof that the Ukrainian military can still succeed in offensive operations and act by surprise.
Kiev's troops have seized large swathes of Russian territory and captured soldiers to exchange for Ukrainian POWs, a much-needed boost to morale for the army, which has not made significant gains on its own soil since late 2022.
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A counter-offensive last year has largely failed to regain control of Russian-occupied territory, and Moscow's troops are steadily advancing in the east of the country in heavy fighting that is draining Ukrainian resources.
The setbacks fueled creeping pessimism about the outcome of the war, with 32 percent of Ukrainians willing to accept territorial concessions in the name of ending the war, according to a poll released last week by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, up from 10 percent before about a year.
In recent days, the mood has lightened, and memes mocking Russia for its failure have flooded Ukrainian social networks. Several Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by Reuters near the Russian border last week were in good spirits as they returned from their combat mission in Russia.
The offensive, which dominated Ukrainian news bulletins, represented "a victory we haven't had in a long time,” said Roman Kostenko, a lawmaker and Ukrainian security forces officer who took part in the operation.
"This is a success in many aspects - both internationally and for ourselves, since we took the initiative,” Kostenko told Ukrainian radio.
Nevertheless, Kiev's troops are encountering resistance and suffering losses, he added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as a watershed moment that showed the Kremlin's threats of retaliation were a bluff and called on Ukraine's allies to loosen restrictions on the use of foreign-supplied weapons.
„The world sees that everything in this war depends only on courage - our courage, the courage of our partners,” Zelensky said on Monday.
Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on Tuesday that his troops had advanced 28-35 km in the Kursk region, and Moscow had moved some of its troops from other directions to strengthen its position there.
Ukraine has struck at least two key bridges in the region, complicating Russian efforts to repel the attack.
"This will change the situation in our favor. The question is how much”, says 42-year-old Oleksandr Viktorovych, a financial analyst whose brother is serving in eastern Ukraine.
"On the other hand, we must understand that any kind of offensive operation, no matter how well planned, means losses.
Upcoming difficulties
Others are less enthusiastic about Ukraine committing valuable resources at a time when its broad eastern front is under significant pressure from the Russian offensive.
Yaroslav Mandel, a war veteran who signed up to fight against Russian forces after their first incursion in 2014, described the incursion into Kursk Oblast as a dangerous operation that could lead to the collapse of defenses in the east.< /p>
„What they did is a show,”, he said.
Moscow's forces are targeting the key eastern transit hub of Pokrovsk, where up to 600 people are fleeing every day, according to official figures, while Russian troops are just 10km from the city's outskirts.
Russia is also putting pressure on the city of Toretsk, whose fall would bring Moscow's weapons closer to another key city and supply route for much of Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbass region.
Moscow claims to have captured two nearby towns this week.
"The strategy should be to protect our country there, in the Donbass”, Mandel said, adding: “That is the first priority”.
Translation from English: Plamen Yotinski, BTA