Moscow has reportedly pulled troops out of southern Ukraine to fend off Kyiv’s incursion that has seized about 400 square miles of Russian territory, an area about the size of New York City. 

And experts say it shows the Ukrainian offensive is achieving its main goal of the offensive and showing the world that the beleaguered nation still has fight in it. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his advisers have been left scrambling to respond to Kyiv’s surprise attack over the border last week, with officials diverting troops from the western front to try to fight off Ukrainian forces occupying dozens of settlements in the Kursk region.

“Russia has relocated some of its units from both Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine’s south,” Ukrainian army spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy told Politico.

It’s unclear how many troops have been relocated to fight in Kursk, but Lykhovity said it was a “relatively small” number of units.

While Ukraine has kept mum over its goals in suddenly mounting a large incursion into Russia, experts have speculated that the attack aims to force Russia to pull back from the front lines, where it has been making slow but significant gains.

Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former US Army Vice Chief of Staff and the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, said Kyiv knows it cannot allow the war to continue as-is and allow Russia to make further advancements in the Donbas region. 

“Despite making marginal gains, Russia has not been able to achieve victory there… but Ukraine knows that the perception of a stalemate only favors Russia,” Keane told The Post.  

“They’re hoping Russia will move troops from Donbas.” 

One Ukrainian government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNBC that the incursion cannot be maintained for a long period of time and is meant to serve as a possible bargaining chip. 

“Hopefully, if everything goes well, the presence of the Ukrainian troops in Russia will serve as a force to change the dynamics of the war, and it will increase our negotiating power, for example, in the context of the possible peace initiatives,” the source said.

The operation could also be a way for Kyiv to garner a much-needed morale boost by taking the war to Russian soil after months of losing ground, Keane noted. 

Zelensky said the offensive’s main goal was to put “pressure on the aggressor,” suggesting it may be a ploy to trigger a cease-fire deal. 

“Russia must be forced into peace if Putin wants to continue waging war so badly,” he said.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi made it clear that his government has no plans to annex the seized territory the same way Moscow did with Crimea. 

“Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not need (foreign territories). Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region. But we want to protect our people’s lives,” Tykhyi said in a statement. 

Kyiv’s ambitious attack has been a source of humiliation for Putin, who was reportedly angry during a meeting with top officials Monday as he demanded answers over Ukraine’s successful incursion that has forced some 200,000 people to evacuate despite years-long propaganda that the war would not affect everyday life in Russia.

Aleksey Smirnov, acting chief of the Kursk region, told the Kremlin at the meeting that at least 28 settlements have been captured by Ukraine, with their forces operating as deep as 7.5 miles into Russia.

“Russia brought war to others, and now it is coming home,” Zelensky said Monday in one of his first public acknowledgments of the incursion.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, said his forces were in control of nearly 400 square miles in the Kursk border region.

Moscow on Tuesday struck back at Ukrainian troops with missiles, drones and airstrikes — which one senior commander claimed had halted Ukraine’s advance.

Russia’s defense ministry also published footage of bombers striking at what it said were Ukrainian troops in the Kursk border region and of infantry storming Ukrainian positions.

Putin has vowed to “kick out” the Ukrainian forces as he slammed the offensive as nothing more than Ukraine’s attempt to stop Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.

“It’s obvious that the enemy will keep trying to destabilize the situation in the border zone to try to destabilize the domestic political situation in our country,” Putin said Monday.