For Vladimir Putin, Donbass is number one, and Kursk does not interest him at all? Why does the Russian president speak like that? Comment by Ivan Preobrazhenski.
Putin suddenly stepped up and began making daily statements related to Ukraine, including the possibility of talks with the authorities of the neighboring country that Russia attacked. These topics apparently interest him so much that he is ready to speak about them not only to the Russian ruling class, but even to elementary school students.
Donbas is above everything
The first thing that Putin has been talking about for a month now is the following: that for him, Donbass is number one, and Kursk does not interest him at all. A month has passed since the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive on Russian territory, but no serious amount of troops from the main Ukrainian front have been transferred to the area. Meanwhile, Putin explains how the Ukrainians have never been able to divert his attention from the Donbass offensive. No amount of petitions from residents of the Ukrainian-occupied areas of the Kursk region, asking for the opening of a green corridor for their return to the territories remaining under Russian control, are able to divert the Russian ruler from this advance that his army is carrying out on foreign land. land.
But Putin's logic can be easily understood. In his eyes - if we listen to his statements from the last few days - Russians (whether current or future) live in the Kursk region, and in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia or, for example, Kharkiv in Ukraine. I guess he perceives even the residents of Kiev not as potential, but simply as future Russians. If so, what does it matter which of these "Russians" will fall under the Russian bombs?
I.e. thinking of Kursk Oblast at times, Putin is apparently relaxed about its inhabitants. And if someone dies - these are necessary losses. In addition, elections are coming up, which the Kremlin did not cancel either in Crimea, or in Belgorod or Kursk regions. What if hostilities take place? It is enough to cancel the voting in the areas already occupied by the Ukrainian army, and in the others - to stage it according to the familiar scheme.
On the front sight is the Ukrainian tail
At the same time, Putin clearly sees some new opportunities for himself in Ukraine, otherwise he would not burden the children with questions about the "illegitimacy" of Volodymyr Zelensky and the failed elections in Ukraine, which Kiev is trying to compensate for with large-scale power shifts, such as the resignation of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. And accordingly, he would not constantly return to the question of negotiations.
Apparently, Putin has once again believed that he will be able to split Ukrainian society - by intimidating some and confusing others, driving them into a new analogue of the Minsk agreements, only after consolidating control over the territories temporarily occupied after February 2022. And here, after a long pause, the Russian army began to actively attack the Ukrainian rear, and the Russian president - to make a statement every day. In this way, Putin is trying to damage Zelensky's legitimacy in the eyes of the West and the Ukrainians themselves, while pushing his ultimatum that negotiations will be possible if Ukraine hands over to Russia Kherson and Zaporozhye, the two regional centers that the Russian army cannot conquer by military force.
Putin's sharp changes in mood
It is significant that immediately after the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region, the mood of the Russian ruler was different. He said angrily that this step by Ukraine made negotiations impossible and was clearly nervous. But after that, Putin quickly calmed down.
The explanation is probably that very little has changed for him - the gas to Europe continues to flow through the distribution station "Suja" in the Kursk region. Putin's approval rating has dropped slightly, which is confirmed by the Russian state demoscopic institutes, but not by the independent Levada center.
And it turns out that if attention is diverted from the defeat in the Kursk region, if the calm and brazen staging of elections there continues, if the complaints of the citizens of the territories lost to Russia are ignored, the psychological and military pressure on Ukraine may even be increased . In this way, it will not only be possible to suppress the increased optimism of the Ukrainians, caused by the offensive near Kursk, but it will also be possible to create in everyone the belief that the military initiative remains in the hands of the Russian army, while in parallel the West and Zelensky will be encouraged to get more and more used to the thought of the need for negotiations with Putin.
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This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and DV as a whole.