By VT - Ahmed Adel - August 29, 2024

According to The New York Times, Washington and London collaborated with the Ukrainians in the invasion of Kursk, allowing for better execution of border operations, while American officials have expressed their skepticism that Ukraine will be able to hold onto the territory it captured from Russia.

Yet, despite this incredulity, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claims that Russia has not been deterred from expanding its military operations in Ukraine into Sumy Oblast.

The US and the UK have provided Ukraine with satellite images and other information about the Kursk region following the invasion by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the US newspaper reported.

“Within days of the offensive, the United States and Britain provided Ukraine with satellite imagery and other information about the Kursk region,” the article said, citing two sources, who explained that this was “to enable commanders to better monitor the movement of Russian reinforcements that could attack Ukrainian troops or cut off their likely retreat to Ukraine.”

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 and that the enemy would have an adequate response.

Understanding the power of the Russian military and its abilities, American officials, according to the New York Times, are not convinced that Ukraine intends to hold its position in Russia for long.

“Ukrainian forces have not been digging the kind of extensive trenches necessary to protect soldiers and equipment from enemy fire, if Russia musters enough firepower to repel the attack. They have not been laying minefields to slow down a counterattack, nor have they constructed barriers to slow down Russian tanks,” the outlet reported.

“What the war has shown us so far is that the way to slow a military down is through ‘defence in depth,’” said Seth G. Jones, a senior vice president with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in reference to the strategy of using multiple layers of defensive positioning. “If they are not defending territory with a mixture of trenches and mines, it is going to be virtually impossible to hold territory.”

Yet, despite Washington expressing its skepticism that Ukraine can hold onto captured Russian territory and claiming it was not informed about the Kiev regime’s plans before its incursion into Kursk on August 6, even going as far as saying it took no part in the operation, the New York Times has exposed this as another American lie.

This was also pointed out by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who said on August 27 that US involvement in Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into the Kursk region is “an obvious fact.”

“Washington’s course of escalation is becoming increasingly provocative,” the deputy minister said, adding that the impression is that US officials believe they have permission to do anything.

“The impression is that [US] colleagues have thrown away the remnants of common sense and believe everything is allowed for them. Their clientele in Kiev follows similar approaches. The consequences can be much more severe than what they are already experiencing. They know where and in what areas we are responding in practical terms,” ​​Ryabkov told reporters.

Russia has already reported that Western weapons, including British tanks and US rocket systems, were used by Ukraine in Kursk, whilst the Kiev regime has confirmed the use of US Himars missiles to destroy bridges in the region.

Yet, despite warnings that the Ukrainian military will not be able to hold onto positions captured in Kursk, Zelensky delusionally said at a press conference on August 24 that the operation in Kursk has helped prevent the Russian army from occupying Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast and its regional centre, the city of Sumy.

“We have stopped a Russian operation in the north (of Ukraine), (we have done) a preventive strike, and we have accomplished this task. We have prevented the encirclement of part of Sumy Oblast,” Zelensky claimed.

Rather, there was no indication that Russia was about to launch an operation in Sumy Oblast, which is why the Ukrainian military captured many settlements with very little resistance. Instead, the Ukrainian invasion has only incentivised the Kremlin to expand its operations from just Eastern Ukraine into Sumy Oblast to create a safety zone so Russian civilians can no longer be targeted once Ukrainian forces have been pushed back over the border. It appears that only Zelensky, and not even the Americans, have faith that this operation will achieve its goals.

Ahmed Adel

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher who regularly contributes to InfoBRICS.

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