Russia is under pressure due to Ukraine’s surprise attack in Kursk. President Zelenskyj has now spoken out for the first time since the border crossing.
Kiev/Moscow – Since Tuesday (6 August), Ukrainian forces have been advancing ever further in the Russian border region of Kursk. According to international media reports, Ukraine has managed to occupy individual villages in the region and take Russian soldiers prisoner. Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency for the Kursk region and also increased protection of the local nuclear power plant. Kiev did not comment on the situation until Thursday evening. But then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke out about the situation in Kursk in a video address from Kiev.
Selenskyj hopeful: “Ukrainians can achieve their goals”
“Russia has brought the war to our country and must feel what it has done,” the Ukrainian president said in his video message from Kyiv on Thursday evening (8 August). However, in his evening video address, Zelensky deliberately did not explicitly name the advance of his troops across the border into Russia and the ongoing fighting in Kursk.
However, the connection between his statement and the fighting in Kursk should be obvious from the timing of Zelensky’s statement alone. In his evening speech, the Ukrainian president added that his country wanted to achieve a just peace in the ongoing war in Ukraine as soon as possible.
“Ukrainians can achieve their goals,” Zelensky emphasized in his video message. He had been informed about the situation in Kursk by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Olexander Syrsky. Zelensky did not give any details, but stressed that the results were what the country currently needs. Previously, Syrsky had published a photo on social networks that was supposed to show him in the assembly area – presumably in Sumy on the border, from where the Ukrainian soldiers advanced into the Russian region of Kursk.
Selenskyj adviser Podolja: Ukraine’s reaction is “absolutely calm, balanced and objective”
Selenskyj’s advisor, Mykhailo Podoliak, also commented in a post on the Short message service X (formerly Twitter) on the Ukrainian advance in Kursk. Ukraine’s reaction was “absolutely calm, balanced and objective,” Podoljak concluded. It was committed to the “spirit of international law” and was guided by the “principles of waging a defensive war,” Podoljak emphasized in his X-post.
Previously, the EU had declared that Ukraine had the right to attack the aggressor’s territory for defensive purposes in its fight against the Russian war of aggression. While some German politicians also expressed similar views, others expressed concern.
Fighting continues on Russian territory in Kursk – drone attacks in Ukraine
According to reports, there were renewed attacks on Russian territory on Friday night. In addition to Kursk, the border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and the Lipetsk region south of Moscow were also affected. There were also numerous drone attacks in Ukraine.
“Lipetsk is under massive drone attack,” the region’s governor, Igor Artamonov, was told by Russian state news agency Cup “The air defense is working against it,” it said. When a drone crashed, an electrical system was damaged, resulting in power outages. In addition, there was an “explosion of hazardous substances” far away from civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s concrete goal in Kursk still unclear – expert considers offensive politically “very successful”
Since Zelensky did not comment directly on the operation of his armed forces in Kursk in his evening video address, Ukraine’s concrete objective in Kursk must remain a matter of speculation for the time being. It is conceivable that Kyiv is aiming to tie down Russian troops locally – also to make it more difficult for Putin to move troops and to present Russia with strategic challenges in addition to logistical ones.
It is also likely that Putin increased the protection of the local nuclear power plant in Kursk because he is concerned about a potential takeover by Ukrainian troops in the near future. For example, Russian military expert Yuri Fedorov believes it is quite possible that the Kursk nuclear power plant could become the target of the Ukrainian advance: “If the Ukrainian troops can conquer and occupy the Kursk nuclear power plant, then there would be a prospect of exchanging the Kursk nuclear power plant for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” he told an independent YouTube channel. expressed.
Jade McGlynn, a Ukraine expert and research fellow at King’s College London, told the British Guardian: “As a military strategy, I remain a little perplexed, but as a political strategy it was very successful. It shows once again that Putin’s ‘red lines’ are just words and that Russia is not as strong as some claim.” (fh)
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