2024-08-14 07:23:26
Foreign analysts continue to examine the development of the situation in the Kursk region. Although it is not yet clear how the Ukrainian offensive will end, it is already clear that the Russian army has failed. And also about the fact that even the so-called frozen state can offer a very rapid and unexpected sequence of events.
According to analyst Michael Smetana, there may be up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. | Video: Team Spotlight
Tomasz Blusiewicz, a researcher at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, says that Ukraine will most likely withdraw from Kursk. But first, it will force the Kremlin to move several brigades that would otherwise hold positions in front-line fighting in Ukraine. But will he transcend his own shadow? In order to succeed, they must. “They will have to relocate. And the Russians are bad at that. They are bad at logistics,” he assessed in an interview with the American newspaper The Hill.
According to Blusiewicz, this is a “brilliant move” on the part of Ukraine. “They achieved a huge success when they forced Russia to move its troops. Kiev proved how defenseless Moscow is in other areas,” he adds, adding that Putin’s prestige received a huge blow after the incursion of Ukrainian troops into Russian territory. According to the American newspaper, the unexpected attack literally enraged him. He called the raid a “provocation” in the first reactions, but later it turned out that the scope of the operation was much larger.
Although it is not yet clear how the Ukrainian offensive will develop, it is already clear that Ukraine has succeeded in changing the previous perception of war. “Before Kursk, there was a feeling that the war had become predictable, and many believed that it had frozen over. But Ukraine showed that there really is room for it to become unpredictable. And that Russia can surprise,” the vice president for policy and programming at the Globsec think tank Alena Kudzková.
American officials supported Ukraine in the attack. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters last week that the incursion into the Kursk region is in line with Washington’s policy of building up defenses against Russian attacks on the border. “We don’t feel that this is an escalation. Ukraine is doing what it needs to be successful on the battlefield,” she said.
Russia has sent reinforcements to the Kursk region and promises to repel the attack. Apti Alaudinov, deputy commander of the Main Military Political Administration of the Armed Forces of Russia, told the Russian news agency TASS that “the situation is difficult, but not critical.” According to him, Ukraine cannot avoid defeat on the front lines. “The enemy can be stopped and destroyed,” he declared.
Some Russians blame the government and military for failing to anticipate the attack on the Kursk region or to defend effectively after it began. Moscow received sharp criticism from, for example, military blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former press spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense. He blamed the government for giving Ukraine space to “accumulate forces for months”. “For two whole months, all information about a possible incursion went to the address of the higher command. They had enough time to intervene,” he said in his post on Telegram.
A reporter infiltrated a secret bunker paid for by the Americans. Ukraine directs attacks from there (article with video here)
Footage shows a destroyed Russian convoy near the Russian village of Oktyabrskoye, 35 kilometers from the border | Video: Reuters