August 9, 2024
Moscow ‘trying to downplay’ major Ukrainian advances in Kursk — DW correspondent
DW’s correspondent in Ukraine, Nick Connolly, said that Kyiv was remaining “tight-lipped” about its ongoing operations in Kursk.
At the same time, “the Russian governmental side is trying to downplay most of what’s going on.”
“A few days ago we were speaking about Ukrainian troops being 10, 15 kilometers into Russian territory from the border, now there’ve been reports and geolocated images of Ukrainian military groups as far as 30 kilometers into Russian territory,” Connelly said.
There are reports the Ukrainians are trying to get to the Kursk nuclear power station, which would be very difficult for the Russians to dislodge them from, if they can get there, Conolly said.
“It does seem that they have caught the Russians off guard… that it’s been pretty easy to get past those Russian defenses, basically driving around them.”
Connolly stressed that Ukrainian forces had managed to pull off a pretty successful campaign, even with limited resources, in a move likely to rattle the Kremlin.
“With a relatively limited investment of people and resources they have achieved a lot, definitely politically, they’ve shown [Russian President] Vladimir Putin up, they’ve shown ordinary Russians that he’s unable to secure the border.”
He speculated that this success could result in a land swap, with Ukraine gaining some of its occupied territory back.
Connolly said that permission from Western powers to use the weapons they supplied inside Russian territory had been a “game changer” for the Ukrainian military.