While World Watches The Middle East, Ukraine Pushes Into Russian Territory

While conflicts in the Middle East have dominated news headlines throughout the last few months, the Ukraine and Russian war continues, with Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian territory.

Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region are occupying multiple border villages, as well as part of Sudzha, according to The Washington Post.

The Ukrainian advancement into Russian territory is Ukraine's largest push into Russia since the conflict began more than two years ago. Moscow was reportedly surprised by the move and questioned whether Ukraine violated restrictions from Western countries like the U.S. that donated weapons to Ukraine, so the country could defend itself.

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The Russian military said that its forces blocked Ukrainian soldiers from advancing further into the Kursk region, according to the Associated Press. But, Russian military bloggers have said that the Ukrainians are more than six miles into Russian territory, potentially opening the door to an escalation of the conflict between the two countries

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine's push into Russian territory a "large-scale provocation" according to the AP.

Ukraine's move into Russia comes just a week after one of the largest international prisoner swaps since the Cold War, with Russia releasing former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal.

Market Impacts: Further escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war could be a potential tailwind for defense contractors like Lockheed Martin Corp LMT and Rtx Corp RTX, each up more than 15% in the last month as tensions remain tight in the Middle East as well as Russia.

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