According to a report by the independent Russian news outlet Meduza, Kremlin officials are scrambling to downplay Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region after Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to stop the invasion for two consecutive weeks.
This report: It first appeared last weekclaimed that Kremlin sources had begun pressuring government-funded media to launch a propaganda campaign to downplay the severity of the invasion of Ukraine and urge Russians to accept a “new normal.”
Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify the report, but Ukraine continues to boast that it has succeeded in capturing more than 780 square miles of Kursk, including the town of Sudza, as well as nearly 100 Russian villages. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Shirsky on tuesday.
Ukrainian soldiers pose for a photo near a military vehicle during a Russian attack on Ukraine, near the Russian border in Ukraine’s Sumy region, August 11, 2024. (REUTERS/Vyacheslav Latinsky)
Ukraine targets Russian bridge in preparation for Moscow counterattack in Kursk
The report also said Moscow was trying to distract Russians through humanitarian operations and that Russian forces were promising to retake the Kursk region after Ukraine’s “inevitable” defeat on the eastern front.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country has no plans to keep troops in southwestern Russia for a long time, insisting that for now they are there as a “buffer zone” to deter any attacks on Russia’s northern Sumy region.
In a sign that Russian aggression along Ukraine’s border has decreased since the incursion earlier this month, President Zelensky visited Sumy on Thursday and met with military officials. He did not cross the Russian border into Kursk, despite a move that Russia may have interpreted as provocative.
Kiev’s objectives for Operation Kursk remain unclear, but some have suggested it may be an attempt to draw Russian forces away from the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
Meduza reported that Russian officials have suggested that Ukrainian forces may remain in the area for several months, suggesting that Putin is unwilling or unable to immediately deploy the necessary number of troops to retake Kursk.
This screenshot taken from a distribution video released on August 20, 2024, shows Ukrainian troops fighting during a military operation in the Kursk region of Malaya Loknya, Kursk Oblast, Russia. (95th Airborne Brigade/Distributed via Reuters)
Russian officials say biggest drone attack of war with Ukraine targets Moscow
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that within a week of the Kiev invasion, Russia had redeployed around 5,000 troops, mostly from operations in Donetsk, to counter an alleged 6,000 Ukrainian troops stationed in Kursk.
But the report also cited sources familiar with the operation as saying Russia would need to move nearly 20,000 troops to push Ukrainian forces away from Russia’s border areas.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on Wednesday that Putin and military officials are counting on Ukraine’s lack of artillery power, exacerbated by delays in the delivery of arms packages from the United States in the winter and spring earlier this year, to counter Russia’s war of attrition.
“The Kremlin’s theory of victory in Ukraine…”[is] “It is based on the assumption that Russian forces can permanently deprive Ukraine of the ability to counter theater-wide initiatives,” ISW reported.
Soldiers from the 24th Mechanized Brigade fire a Gyatzint-S 152mm self-propelled howitzer at Russian military positions near the town of Khasyv Yar, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, Tuesday, August 20, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk/24th Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine via The Associated Press)
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but, Despite the disadvantages of Ukrainian artilleryHowever, Kiev still manages to successfully counter Russian aggression by employing alternative and asymmetric tactics, including drone and long-range missile attacks.
“ISW recently assessed that both Russian and Ukrainian forces individually lack the capacity to conduct decisive war-winning operations and instead must conduct multiple successful operations with narrow operational objectives to collectively achieve strategic objectives,” the assessment added.
Concerns remain over Russia’s presence in Donetsk, where Ukraine has begun forced evacuations.
