Mission Creep: The Russian Army revealed the role of four NATO countries in the preparation of the attack on the Kursk region

Semyon Boykov (Семен Бойков)
Izvestia

How the West now is helping the Ukrainian military

The operation of the AFU in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of special services of the USA, Great Britain, and Poland. This was reported to Izvestia by the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service. They added that the units involved in the attack had undergone combat alignment in training centers in Britain and Germany. Experts emphasize that the Ukrainian attack is essentially doomed to failure. Moreover, Moscow will not negotiate with Kyiv now because of its aggressive actions. About why the West decided to enter the Russian region, and how advisers of the North Atlantic Alliance countries are now helping the AFU, [is covered below based on the information obtained by] “Izvestia”.

Who was preparing Ukraine for an attack on the Kursk Region?

The Foreign Intelligence Service has reliable information about the participation of NATO countries in preparing and carrying out a terrorist attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the border areas of the Kursk Region, the SVR press bureau has told Izvestiya. They specified that due to the deteriorating situation of the Ukrainian troops at several sections of the line of contact in the SVR zone, Western handlers have been actively pushing Kyiv in recent months to move military operations deep into Russian territory, including to provoke an upsurge in anti-government sentiments and destabilize the internal political situation in Russia.

💬 “According to available information, the AFU operation in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of special services of the United States, Great Britain, and Poland. The units involved in it underwent combat training in training centers in Great Britain and Germany. Military advisers from NATO countries are providing assistance in the management of AFU units invading the territory of Russia and in the use by Ukrainians of Western models of military equipment. The alliance countries also provide the Ukrainian military with satellite recon-naissance data on the deployment of Russian troops in the area of the operation,” the SVR said.

The AFU attacked the territory of the Kursk region on the morning of August 6. At the moment, Russian units are taking action to destroy Ukrainian formations. In particular, the units of the “North” group of troops, supported by army aviation and artillery fire, thwarted attempted attacks from enemy assault groups in the direction of the settlements of Borki, Korenevo, Kremyanoye, Russkaya Konopelka. During the day, the AFU's losses amounted to up to 350 servicemen and 25 armored vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry said on August 20. In total, the enemy lost more than 4.1 thousand servicemen during the fighting in the Kursk direction.

💬 It is just a matter of time until all enemy units are destroyed. These are small terrorist-sabotage groups, they operate in groups of 10-12 people, hiding in wooded areas, and abandoned villages. In apartments, in basements, and so on. It's not easy to detect them, because they may not even have transportation,” military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.

According to him, from the military point of view, the operation was initially completely futile. The Russian side has already blocked all escape routes for the participants of the operation.

💬 Those who remained in the Kursk region are suicidal. At the same time, the West and Kyiv were also counting on media noise, which they needed to demonstrate their ability to damage Russia. And against this background to try to mobilize the population and their armed forces for confrontation,” he added.

Miscalculation of the West and Ukraine on the Kursk direction

The US presidential administration recently said that Washington was allegedly not involved in planning or preparing the AFU attack in the Kursk Region. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even said that Kyiv itself should comment on the offensive. At the same time, the US and Germany supported Ukraine's attack. The Pentagon said Kyiv's actions on Russian territory and the use of US weapons there did not violate the rules under which Washington supports Ukraine. The German Defense Ministry clarified that there were no principled reasons preventing the use of weapons supplied by Germany in Kursk Region.

💬 The FRG is under serious pressure from the United States. We have already seen this in the case of the supply of Leopard tanks, which Berlin initially did not want to supply to the combat zone. Washington realizes that Germany plays an important role in this conflict and in preserving the combat effectiveness of the AFU. In addition, the possibility of supplying Taurus missiles, for example, is still being discussed in expert circles, although the Scholz government has made it clear that it is not ready for such a decision,” Artem Sokolov, a researcher at the Center for European Studies at the MGIMO Institute of International Relations, tells Izvestia.

According to experts, the AFU is simply not technically and logistically capable of preparing and carrying out such an operation without the support of Western countries.

💬 Ukraine would not dare to do this on its own, given the seriousness of the operation. After all, an invasion of sovereign Russian territory is an act of aggression. It was not done without consulting the Americans,” Vladimir Brovkin, an American historian and former Harvard University lecturer, told Izvestiya. - The Americans monitor everything that happens on the line of contact constantly, around the clock. They have satellite surveillance, people on the ground, a huge staff at the embassy, and military advisers.

It is quite obvious that NATO countries are involved in the AFU attack, Italian political scientist Giuseppe Maiello agrees. At the same time, he said, the operation itself is a strategic miscalculation by the West and Kyiv. The assumption that such actions will strengthen the Ukrainian position during potential negotiations is a complete misconception. However, the involvement of the UK is not surprising, as it is this country that now remains one of the main actors behind the fighting in Ukraine on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces, he added. The same can be said about the USA.

Poland is also on the list of countries that have been actively supporting Kyiv since the beginning of the conflict. For example, in July, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Warsaw was considering shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine.

Before that, there was more and more talk about the possibility of negotiations between the parties to the conflict. Now the situation has changed, and Moscow will not enter into dialog with Kyiv, which is unable to succeed on the battlefield. As a result, all Ukrainian units will be forced out of Russian territory. And the West will not be able to supply Ukraine with the necessary amount of weapons in the long term. In addition, the AFU is experiencing a shortage of soldiers,” the expert continued.

According to Volodymyr Brovkin, the logic of the US actions now should be considered first of all from the point of view of the pre-election situation in the country.

💬 Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats, who are now in power, want to win. And they want success. They are constantly talking about the fact that supposedly the Ukrainians are winning, that the beachhead is expanding, and that troops are arriving. They are spinning this attack in the Western media as a great victory for the Ukrainians and, consequently, for the Americans. They create the illusion of success. But their main miscalculation is that they did not expect such a strong and patriotic reaction from the Russian leadership,” he added.

As for potential negotiations, we should not expect them now, he said. Russian leader Vladimir Putin said this explicitly. Because of Kyiv's aggressive actions, his proposal, which he presented in mid-June ahead of a conference in Switzerland, has lost relevance. “What kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike civilians, and civilian infrastructure or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities? What can we even talk to them about?” - he said on August 12 during an operational meeting on the situation in Russia's border regions.

However, in June, Vladimir Putin outlined the conditions for launching the peace process. He implied the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territory of the LNR, DNR, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, and within their administrative boundaries, which existed at the time of their incorporation into Ukraine. In addition, Moscow was ready to start peace talks with Kyiv if it officially announced the renunciation of its aspirations to join NATO.

The Russian side assumed that the Istanbul agreements agreed in the spring of 2022 between the Russian and Ukrainian sides, mediated by Turkey, could serve as the basis for a peaceful settlement. They were initialed by Kyiv, which, among other things, agreed to a neutral status. But later Ukraine refused to continue the dialog. And it took such a step, as the leader of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, David Arahamiya, specified earlier, also because of the advice of Boris Johnson, who at that time was the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Since the operation in Kursk Oblast failed to provoke destabilization in Russia, the West will take a wait-and-see attitude and try to distance itself from the attack, Artem Sokolov believes. He summarized: “Now the Federal Republic of Germany and other countries are primarily watching what kind of reaction Russia will have in the end,” he said. At the same time, he said, the actions in the Kursk Region demonstrate that the West does not intend to accept Kyiv's defeat and is trying to inflict the maximum possible damage on Russia with the help of Ukraine.

(Translation: DeepL + Language wash: Grammarly)

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