[Source: Reuters]

Russian President Vladimir Putin will mount a counteroffensive to try to retake territory in the Kursk region captured by Ukrainian troops, but Russian forces will encounter “a difficult fight,” Deputy CIA Director David Cohen said on Wednesday.

Cohen told a national security industry conference that the significance of the Ukrainian incursion, which has overrun some 300 square miles (777 square km) of the Russian province, remained to be seen.

Ukrainian forces crashed through Russia’s western border into the Kursk region on Aug. 6 in a surprise offensive that is continuing.

Ukraine’s success in Kursk “has the potential to change the dynamic” of the conflict “a little bit going forward,” he continued without elaborating.

Ukraine has claimed the capture of 100 settlements in its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, while Russian forces continue to inch forward in the eastern Donetsk region.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saidthe war with Russia would eventually end in dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a strong position and that he would present a plan to U.S. President Joe Biden and his two potential successors.

Ukraine says it controls more than 1,200 square km (463 square miles) of the Kursk region.