The fall of Vladimir Putin is now only a matter of time
Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk will have been intended to bring forward the end of the dictator’s rule
It has been the most efficient offensive of the entire war. Ukrainian intelligence identified the Russians’ weak points. Special forces crossed the frontier in advance to prepare the ground. And when the attack on the Kursk oblast came on 6 August, it was a textbook example of what strategists call an all-arms manoeuvre.
Cyber-attacks were combined with armour, artillery, infantry and specialist engineering to dismantle enemy defences. Russian drones and sensors were blinded by electronic warfare. An air defence umbrella was thrown up, closing the skies to Putin’s planes.
At first, it looked like a limited cross-border raid. Preparations had been made in such secrecy that Ukraine’s allies seemed to be as much in the dark as her enemies. Volodymyr Zelensky had learned the lessons of the much-trailed 2023 counter-offensive, when Russia took advantage of the long notice period to build a three-mile-deep belt of landmines, barbed wire and gun emplacements.
This time, Ukraine caught the Russians off guard. Some 400 square miles have been seized, and an estimated 2,500 Russian conscripts captured, with perhaps 3,000 more now kettled south of the river Sejm. The Europeans and Americans have been every bit as blindsided by the speed of the advance as the Russians.
I would write that “no one saw this coming” but, throwing modesty to the winds, I did point out in this column just over a year ago that there was a short-cut available: “Ukraine could launch a massive left hook through Kursk, aiming to cut off the enemy’s forces”. What I had in mind was a flanking stroke that would sever Russian supply-lines, rather as the Israelis stopped the successful Egyptian advance in 1973 by launching a counter-offensive far in their rear, on the other side of the Suez Canal.
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Ever escalating…..anybody out there still not get it? Stolen elections have consequences.
Russia targeted all of Ukraine with missiles and drones early Monday morning. Much of the attack targeted Kiev. So reports the Ukrainian military.
The anti-aircraft defense over Kiev reportedly defused as many as 10 Russian missiles before they could even do any damage. Russia did not yet communicate about the attack, but it is already clear that there were casualties. Casualties were reported in western Lutsk, eastern Dnipro and southern Zaporizhzhia.