NATO was not involved in Ukraine’s surprise offensive into the Russian region of Kursk, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has told the German newspaper Die Welt. “Ukraine did not preview its planning for Kursk with NATO, and the alliance played no role,” he said in the interview published on Saturday. Some 10,000 Ukrainian troops crossed into the western Russian region on August 6. Kiev claims to control about 100 settlements and more than 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the purpose of the push into Kursk is to create a buffer zone to halt at…