Aletho News

Ukrainian troops face defeat in Kursk – retired major

By Ahmed Adel | August 22, 2024

Retired Ukrainian Army Major Igor Lapin said in an interview with former Ukrainian parliament deputy Boryslav Bereza that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be defeated in the Kursk region if they decide to hold their positions. Ukraine’s expected defeat comes despite the involvement of the intelligence services of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland in the invasion of the Kursk region.

“Some people thought that now we would get somewhere and start entrenching ourselves. Well, I have already said, from the point of view of a special forces officer, that as soon as the front becomes static, that will be the end of us,” Lapin said.

He noted that the Russian military has an advantage in terms of air force, artillery, and troop numbers. In his opinion, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, is responsible for the attack on the Kursk region.

According to the retired major, Ukrainian troops cannot “add 300 km to the defence line and try to hold back the pressure of Russian troops,” thus, he believes that a static front line creates problems for Ukraine.

“There is the commander-in-chief’s intention. That is his responsibility. By the way, what is the strategic intention? Nobody knows,” the major added.

On August 6, Ukrainian troops launched an attack on the Kursk region of Russia. The invasion marked Ukraine’s most significant aggression against Russia since February 2022. Commenting on the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had carried out another large-scale provocation by indiscriminately firing at civilian targets, adding that the enemy would receive an adequate response.

Despite the rapid advancement of Ukrainian forces in the first days of the invasion, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said the advance had been halted. He stressed that the operation in the Kursk region would be completed with the defeat of the enemy and access to the state border.

However, the initial success of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region is due to the involvement of the intelligence services of the US, the UK, and Poland.

“According to available data, the operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the intelligence services of the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland. The units involved underwent combat coordination at training centres in the United Kingdom and Germany. Military advisers from NATO states are providing assistance in managing the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that invaded Russian territory,” the Russian Intelligence Service said on August 20 to the Izvestia newspaper.

NATO countries also provided the Ukrainian military with satellite intelligence data on the deployment of Russian troops in the area of ​​operation. The intelligence service further stated that due to the deterioration of Ukrainian troops’ situation in several sections of the combat contact line in the Northern Military District zone, the West has been pressuring Kiev to transfer military operations to Russian territory in the false belief that it will provoke the rise of anti-government sentiments and shaking up the internal political situation in Russia.

Washington’s involvement in Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk is not limited to the support from intelligence services. US private military group Forward Observations Group boasted about its involvement by posting a photo titled “The boys in Kursk” and geotagging Kursk. In response to the American mercenaries fighting in Kursk, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Holmes on August 20 to lodge a protest.

It is recalled that in March, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that 13,387 mercenaries had arrived in Ukraine since the start of the Russian special military operation. At that time, up to 5,962 mercenaries were reported to have been eliminated. It is only normal that this number will skyrocket since Ukrainian forces are not only relying on the Forward Observations Group but a host of other mercenary groups, including the Georgian Legion, to invade Russian territory.

Nonetheless, as supply lines become stretched and Ukraine struggles to rotate soldiers, it is expected that their advances will quickly stall, which will inevitably lead to a rapid collapse and Ukrainian soldiers being driven out of Russia, especially as Russian forces continue to close in on the key supply hub town of Pokrovsk in Donbass.

As expected, Western media is glorifying Ukraine’s assault in Kursk while ignoring that Ukrainian front lines in Donbass are collapsing, which will see even more territory fall into the hands of Russia. In effect, for Ukraine’s daring attack on Kursk to occur, troops had to be withdrawn from Donbass, which has only benefited Russia on the eastern front, and once the Ukrainian assault stalls, it can be expected that it will be Russian forces pouring into Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast in response.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

August 22, 2024 - Posted by aletho | Militarism | Russia, Ukraine