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entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hello and welcome to this special edition of Battleground Ukraine with me, Patrick Bishop and Saul David.

No need to explain why we're bringing you this bonus episode. Against all expectations, Ukraine has torn up the

playbook and launched an operation that is extraordinary in its boldness and daring, but heavy,

as we shall be discussing, with risk. It's taken the Russians and indeed the rest of the world

by surprise, not to say amazement. The big question is, will it shift the dynamic of the war, militarily, politically and diplomatically?

Will Zelensky's gamble, because it seems that this was his initiative, pay off?

There's so much to talk about.

But Saul, first, where are we this morning in terms of news from the battlefield?

Well, Ukrainian troops have advanced more than 20 miles.

I mean, it's extraordinary to think, isn't it, Patrick?

And that's over the last week into Russian territory, the Kursk Oblast, seizing towns and villages.

Alexander Serski, the head of Ukrainian military, said yesterday that his forces had captured

1,000 square kilometers. That also equates to 386 square miles of Russian land. The troops are

fulfilling their tasks, he said. Confiding continues along the entire front line. The situation

is under our control. Well, there's been a bit of skepticism about

that claim, not least from the trusted ISW, who think it's a bit of an exaggeration,

but Russian mill bloggers are confirming major gains for Ukraine. And certainly the battle seems

...