Russian prisoners may be used for bargaining
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top military commander have boasted of continued success in Ukraine’s surprise incursion into western Russia, claiming further territorial gains and the capture of Russian forces, who Zelenskyy said could be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The statements from Zelenskyy and Oleksandr Syrsky, made a day after Zelenskyy for the first time acknowledged the ongoing operations in Kursk, seem to imply that the thrust into Russian territory is part of a strategy for future negotiations and not an indefinite occupation.
In a video posted on Zelenskyy’s official Telegram channel, Syrsky is seen delivering a short report on Ukrainian forces’ gains in Russia’s western Kursk region, which Ukrainian troops entered nearly a week ago.
Syrsky said his forces had “advanced one to three kilometres” and had taken under their control some 40sq km and 74 settlements. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops had seized some 1000sq km of territory.
In the video, Zelenskyy thanked Syrsky for “filling our fund of exchange” of captured Russian soldiers who could be traded for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Zelenskyy’s comments on the tactical nature of the Kursk operation echoed similar remarks by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry – that Ukraine does not intend to hold on to Russian territory that its troops have seized in recent days.
“Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said at a news briefing.
Tykhyi took the opportunity to also troll the Kremlin, which has invaded and annexed more than 20% of Ukrainian territory since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. “I can emphasise here that, unlike Russia, Ukraine does not need [that which belongs to] someone else,” he said.
But Tykhyi did not give a timeline for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops.
Holding the territory for an extended period, however, until it can be bartered for something better, possibly in a peace deal, presents its own difficulties.
Despite Ukraine’s tactical successes, Moscow’s military still far outstrips Kyiv’s in terms of numbers of soldiers and weaponry.
The incursion, which is taking place about 530km south of Moscow, has nevertheless altered the momentum of the war in Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces have made slow but steady gains along the front line in southern and eastern Ukraine.
The purpose of the cross-border attacks was primarily for security reasons, Tykhyi said. “Since the beginning of this summer,” Russia had carried out “more than 2000 strikes” from the Kursk region on the bordering Sumy region in Ukraine, he said. These strikes involved multiple launch rocket systems, “barrel artillery, mortars, drones, 255 guided air bombs [and] more than a hundred missiles”.
“Russia brought this war to the territory of Ukraine, and it is quite right that this war is now returning to the territory of Russia,” he said, adding that “the sooner Russia agrees to the restoration of a just peace … the sooner the raids of the Ukrainian defence forces on Russian territory will stop.”
Russian Defence Ministry officials said that Russian army units, fresh reserves, army aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces stopped Ukrainian armoured mobile groups from moving deeper into Russia, near the Kursk settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky.
As Russia’s military fought Ukrainian forces, security officials threatened reprisals against Ukraine and blamed the West for the incursion.
Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, who also heads the National Antiterrorism Committee, accused Ukraine of “a terrorist attack” in Russia’s Kursk region “with the support of the collective West”. Kyiv, he said, was “targeting the civilian population and civilian facilities”. Ukraine has said the attacks are military operations.
Speaking at a meeting of the National Antiterrorism Committee, Bortnikov said the goal appeared to be an effort “to gain a foothold on Russian territory”. and warned that it was important to be ready for a potential deterioration in the security situation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has divided responsibility for the crisis between the military, which he ordered yesterday to drive Ukrainian forces out of Russian territory, and the Federal Security Service and Russian National Guard, tasked with securing the border.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said Ukraine would face various consequences from Russia in reprisal for the Kursk attack.
“Ukraine has committed a terrorist raid into our territory,” Medvedev said at a meeting to organise humanitarian support for evacuees from the region. “They’ll bear a deserved punishment for what they’ve done.”
Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region has stunned and embarrassed Russia’s military, and residents of Kursk have expressed fury that they were not warned about the attacks and were given little information during evacuations.
Several Russian military bloggers predicted that military officials would be sacked for failing to prevent the incursion.
– Washington Post