The Guardian view on Putin’s retaliation: what price will Ukraine pay for taking the war to Moscow?

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s long-awaited reshuffle this week, the biggest since the war began, recognises the public mood. The president said that the country needed “new energy”. No one is calling for elections. Ukrainians, though exhausted, continue to rally round the flag. Yet Vladimir Putin’s comment that the Kursk incursion had failed to slow Russia’s advance in the Donbas, and has weakened Ukrainian forces elsewhere, was meant not only to shrug off Moscow’s embarrassment but to underscore Ukrainian questions about the cost and wisdom of the operation. Russia’s advance started picking up pace earlier this year, but some analysts – and Donbas residents – believe it is picking up pace because of the Kursk foray, which seems to offer more symbolic than directly strategic gains.