Ukraine's offensive in Kurshchyna continues to cross President Vladimir Putin's red lines, but he does not know what to oppose to Ukraine's actions.
Points of attention
- Ukraine's offensive in Kurshchyna crosses President Putin's 'red lines' and reveals Russia's military vulnerabilities.
- The Kursk operation of the AFU marks the first direct ground attack on Russia post-World War II, questioning Putin's response.
- The successful military operations in Kurshchyna have allowed Ukraine to replenish their exchange fund and thwart Russian invasion plans.
Putin passes through the Kursk operation of the AFU
Kyiv's lightning-quick invasion of western Russia's Kursk region this month crossed the reddest line of all — a direct ground attack on Russia — but Putin's response so far has been surprisingly passive and muted, a stark contrast to his rhetoric at the start of the war, according to the authors of an article published in August 24.
Journalists recall that on the first day of the invasion in February 2022, Putin tried to scare Ukraine's potential allies that any country that stood in Russia's path would face consequences "the likes of which you have never seen in your entire history."
He even hinted at a nuclear strike if Russia's territorial integrity was threatened.
We will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It's not a bluff, he said a few months later in September.
But the Kursk operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which became the first foreign invasion of the Russian Federation after the Second World War, revealed Russia's military shortcomings and exposed Moscow's apparently illusory red lines.
This calls into question Washington's central strategy for Ukraine, which consists of a slow, controlled supply of arms to Ukraine to avoid escalating tensions with Russia, the journalists explain, adding that critics believe that this very strategy has overturned Kyiv's chances of quickly ousting Russia from its territory and led to a brutal war of attrition with huge casualties.
Jeremy Gurewitz, columnist for The Hill newspaper, writes that the Ukrainian offensive in Kurshchyna reminds him of the Israeli Yom Kippur War of 1973, when the Israelis were able to turn the tide of the war against their enemy.
Hurewitz says that the Israelites then, recovering from being attacked from all sides on the holiest day of their calendar, managed to drive the Egyptian army beyond their borders and bring it to the brink of destruction. This made not only the Egyptians panic, but also the rest of the world community. The Israeli army was already standing practically in the suburbs of Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
The observer says that the Ukrainian army is still far from Moscow, but the Russians have already felt that the war has come to them — they had to evacuate 100,000 residents of the Kursk region, the Russian military and Vladimir Putin were ashamed because they could not protect their borders.
If the Ukrainians can keep territories in Russia, they will be able to exchange them for territories captured by the Russians. Such negotiations will be the beginning of the end of Putin, the observer believes, because they will dispel the myth of the invincibility of the Russian president.
Whatever the outcome, the Ukrainian offensive in Kurshchyna is a bold gambit that, as history shows, can be very effective when it comes to turning the enemy's strategy and military gains against themselves, writes the columnist.
Zelenskyi on the objectives of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kurshchyna
During a press conference with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda and the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonite in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the Ukrainian military is conducting a complex offensive operation in the Kursk region, but is achieving its goals.
The operation is complicated. The important thing is that she follows our plan. There are important results of this operation. I can't talk about everything, said the head of state.
The President emphasized that the successful military operations in Kurshchyna allowed Ukraine to replenish the exchange fund.
The Ukrainian leader also emphasized that the offensive of the Armed Forces in Kurshchyna foiled the plans of the Russian invaders to invade the territory of the Sumy region.
We prevented the encirclement of part of the Sumy region and the desire to occupy Sumy. Someone said that we play it as a dialogue card. We are not playing any cards, the president emphasized.
Zelenskyi also noted that all goals set by Ukraine will be achieved.
