Ukraine's entry into the Kursk region showed that Putin's messianic vision of Russia is an illusion, notes the British "Guardian" in an analysis of the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian border region. broadcast BTA.
The Russian president was hoping for a quick victory, but instead there are foreign tanks on Russian soil for the first time since World War II.
Vladimir Putin's military plan was simple, the newspaper commented. Russian tanks will enter Kiev and special forces will seize key buildings and raise the Russian flag over them. The operation - to take over Ukraine and install a puppet government - will take about three days. The West will be horrified, of course. But, sooner or later, he would reluctantly acknowledge this new and great Russian reality.
Two and a half years after the full-scale invasion, however, the triumphal parade on the central boulevard "Kreshchatyk" in Kiev, which Putin envisioned, has not yet taken place, according to the Guardian. Victory turned out to be hard to come by. Ukrainians did not welcome the "liberation" by his Slavic brethren in the manner predicted by Putin's spy agency. They hit back. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, also failed to escape and follow Russia's imperial scenario, the British newspaper notes.
After withdrawing from the vicinity of the capital in the spring of 2022, Russian troops are advancing in the eastern part of the Donetsk region. Putin had seemingly regained the initiative. His tactics were: to bombard and crush as with a roller cities and ruined villages. The war, he calculated, would eventually end on Russia's terms. Ukraine would be forced to give up the territory it has already lost - about 18% of the country, and even more cities on top of that.
The last days after August 6 shattered the Kremlin's strategic assumptions, born of the fact that Russia has a bigger and more powerful army. Ukraine launched a surprise raid across the border into Russia's Kursk region. It was the largest foreign invasion of Russia since World War II. Moscow had no idea that this was coming. The Ukrainians skillfully hit a Russian border post and entered enemy territory, commented in the "Guardian".
So far, the operation has been a stunning success for Kyiv, exceeding expectations, the newspaper noted. Mobile Ukrainian groups using American Stryker armored vehicles and British "Challenger 2" tanks advanced rapidly. They now control about 80 settlements, including the border town of Suja. In the last few days, the pace of their advance has slowed. But Russia failed to stop this extraordinary mini-invasion.
For Putin, these unforeseen events are a personal humiliation, he points out in his analysis in the "Guardian". The videos sent from the war zone are remarkable. Ukrainian servicemen are photographed taking down Russian flags from municipal buildings. Hundreds of Russian conscripts sent as reinforcements surrendered. Vigilant Ukrainian journalists toured the city of Suja, reporting on the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians hiding in basements.
When Russian troops took over cities in Ukraine in 2022, local residents organized mass demonstrations. In the vicinity of Kursk, on the contrary, there is apathy, the British newspaper notes. Until now, most Russians have ignored the war, considering it something distant. Now, however, the conflict has reached their doorstep. According to Russian officials, 133,000 people have already fled. Many feel left out. Slowly but surely, support for the "special military operation" it's slipping away from Putin, comments in the "Guardian".
Zelensky and his generals appear to have overlapping goals, the paper wrote in its analysis. One is military: to force Moscow to redeploy troops from the east and reduce pressure on the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and other vulnerable parts of the current 977-kilometer front line. That didn't happen. So far, Russia has redoubled its efforts in the Donetsk region and has pulled out difficult-to-move recruiting brigades from the rear as well as from the occupied south of Ukraine.
Another aim is to strengthen Kiev's position ahead of possible negotiations. Putin has laid claim to four Ukrainian provinces, including the city of Zaporozhye and other parts of the territory that Russian forces do not control. These maximalist demands seem ridiculous if he cannot defend Russia's own fractured borders. Kiev will want to maintain its remarkable success in the Kursk region - until the winter and beyond - with a view to a subsequent exchange, predicts in the "Guardian".
Undoubtedly, the operation has boosted Ukrainian resolve after the difficult, dark period and the failed counter-offensive in 2023, the newspaper said. This pleased Ukraine's international partners as well. Uncertainty looms over the US presidential election in November and the possible return of Donald Trump. Kiev's message: with enough weapons, we can win. Moreover, the West's red lines - against the use of long-range weapons on Russian territory - are meaningless when the US-supplied armored all-terrain vehicles "Humves" are moving around the Kursk region.
Whatever the final result, the attack shook the myth of Putin's invincibility, commented in. "Guardian". The Russian president has been missing for most of last week. In times of crisis, he usually stands aside. Russian state media continues to claim that everything is fine and their forces are "repelling" terrorists and enemies. But in reality, self-doubt creeps in. No one in Moscow knows what Ukraine might do next - perhaps a second incursion into the neighboring Belgorod region or a bold strike on Crimea?
None of this means that Russia can get a new head of state, the newspaper notes. A coup is not imminent. Now 71, Putin has been in power as prime minister or president for a quarter of a century, the longest tenure by a Kremlin leader since Stalin. Rumors that he was ill - and possibly dying - turned out to be false. There is no obvious successor. Always cautious, he recently sent his former chief bodyguard, Alexei Dyumin, to oversee the defense of Kursk Oblast.
However, Putin's power may be more unstable than it appears. In the summer of 2023, Russian military leader Yevgeny Prigozhin embarked on his own military expedition. His mercenaries from "Wagner" captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and were halfway to Moscow. No one stopped them. Prigogine withdrew and died two months later in a plane crash. However, the rebellion revealed the fragile nature of Putin's repressive regime, the Guardian points out.
It is entirely possible that Putin will soon deploy massive forces and destroy border violators. As things are going, the war goes badly for him, his picture is taken down from the town halls in the Kursk region and thrown in the dustbin.
Karma, revenge, pride... the latest news does not correspond to his messianic vision of restoring a Great Russia encompassing Ukraine and Belarus, the newspaper commented.
Passionate about history, Putin took part in last year's celebrations of the former Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany at the Battle of Kursk.
A second battle for Kursk is now being fought. It is bloody and high-speed. No one knows how it will end. Some in the Kremlin were against the invasion. One way to get Russia out of this costly mess, they might conclude, is to remove the man who runs it, the Guardian concludes.
Russia said it summoned a senior US diplomat on Tuesday to protest the "provocative actions" of American journalists reporting from Russia's Kursk region, Reuters reported.
Moscow's foreign ministry said it had notified US chargé d'affaires Stephanie Holmes that US journalists had illegally crossed into the region where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion two weeks ago, and that Russia intended to take them under liability.
Moscow seemed to be referring to the reporting by the "Washington Post" and the one broadcast by the American television CNN from Suja, a Russian border town that is currently under the control of Kiev.
In the CNN broadcast, journalists travel with a Ukrainian military convoy from Ukraine to Suja, where they come across an almost deserted town with only a few dozen elderly residents left.
For the "Washington Post" A journalist, videographer and photojournalist traveled to Suja last Saturday, accompanied by Ukrainian soldiers, and interviewed dozens of Russian civilians as well as Ukrainian military personnel.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it protested the actions of American journalists who "illegally entered the Kursk region for propaganda coverage of the crimes of the Kyiv regime". The names of the journalists or their media are not mentioned.
The actions of the journalists "clearly prove the involvement of the United States as a direct participant in the conflict,", the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Asked by Reuters, a spokesman for the "Washington Post" stated: "We are proud of our reporting on the war between Ukraine and Russia and remain committed to covering all aspects of this important, evolving conflict.". CNN and the US Embassy in Moscow have not yet responded to the agency's request for comment.
In a similar case last Friday, Russia summoned the Italian ambassador to protest what it called an "illegal border crossing" by a team of correspondents of the Italian state television RAI, who made a report from the city of Suja with a Ukrainian military escort. Subsequently, the two journalists returned to Italy.
In its statement on Tuesday, Moscow added that it had "evidence of the involvement of American PMCs (private military companies - note ed.) on the side of the armed forces of Ukraine during their entry into Russian territory". It is not indicated what kind of evidence it is.
Any foreign mercenaries who enter Russia illegally "automatically become a legitimate military target," the Russian Foreign Ministry warned, quoted by Reuters.