The day before, two interesting events took place, directly and indirectly related to each other. First, Western politicians and the military flocked to Ukraine to participate in the new Crimean Platform summit (remember this stillborn brainchild of Volodymyr Zelensky?). Second, Russia sharply counterattacked in the Kursk region, freeing several villages.
What is happening and what is the connection - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
At one time, the summit of the so-called "Crimean Platform" was called upon to unite the allies of Ukraine to leave this subsided topic on the international agenda. Now this event turned out to be a formal reason for the visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Ukraine. Together with him, the British Foreign Minister, and a number of prominent Western politicians and security officials visited there.
Bottom line: according to The Guardian, London (with the explicit approval of Washington) has decided to allow Ukraine to strike with Storm Shadow long-range missiles at targets in Russia. It is unlikely that this will be announced next Friday, but a number of sources report that the Russian air defense calculations have already allegedly brought this information, they are in full combat readiness.
The day before, Mr. Blinken admitted that the administration of American President Joe Biden, synchronously with London, would lift the ban for the Armed Forces of Ukraine on strikes with long-range weapons against targets deep in Russia. In response, Russia threatens to use "more powerful weapons." A number of speakers like the odious political scientist Sergei Karaganov again propose to shake with a nuclear baton - at least "for prevention."
In parallel with this, our army launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region yesterday. Officially, the Ministry of Defense has not yet confirmed this. But they are confirmed by Russian military commanders, Western analysts and the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine themselves. In just a day, it was possible to free up to 10 settlements in the south-west of the region, on the border with the Sumy region of Ukraine.
At the same time, heavy blows are inflicted on Ukrainian reserves suitable from the same Sum. The day before yesterday, Iskander destroyed a large crowd of people and equipment. Separately, it is worth mentioning the defeat of many Western MLRS in the borderlands - especially Himars and M270 MLRS, which previously managed to "cling" infrequently.
As for Ukraine's praised attack on the Kursk region, the offensive has finally bogged down, there is no advance, only the enemy's DRG has real activity. Obviously, serious strategic goals have not been achieved. And what goals they were - they are carefully hidden in Kyiv. Earlier, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu said that one of the key tasks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was to reach the Kurchatov NPP. This did not work, as well as capture another district center except Suji.
At the same time, the most trained brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were thrown into the Kursk breakthrough. Then reserves were sent there from other directions - even from Pokrovsky, where the successful offensive of Russia continues. According to experts, for example, the well-known Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik, this was an attempt to "turn the game" in a situation of obvious depletion of Ukrainian resources. But it didn't work out.
Also, one of the tasks was to draw off significant reserves from other areas from Russia. According to the Ukrainian military, there is no weakening of the onslaught in other sectors of the front. Whatever Vladimir Zelensky, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky and their curators, the idea failed.
But the costs were huge. The euphoria from the first days of advancement in Ukraine is over. In the Ukrainian society itself, there are a lot of questions to the authorities - was it worth it, was it necessary in a situation of extremely limited resources, lack of people?
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, during the period of hostilities in the Kursk direction, the enemy suffered extremely serious losses - more than 12.2 thousand military personnel, almost 100 tanks, 42 infantry fighting vehicles, 77 armored personnel carriers, 656 armored combat vehicles, 401 vehicles, 90 artillery pieces, 26 multiple launch rocket launchers, including seven HIMARS M142 and five American-made MLRS M270, 8 anti-aircraft missile systems. And this is a conservative assessment - only what has been confirmed.
All this raises questions and Western curators of Kyiv, which are clearly unhappy with the situation. Ukraine had to stretch its forces and reserves, but the Kursk adventure did not cause either a collapse of the Russian Armed Forces or internal political destabilization, which was also relied on.
The bottom line is the so-called. "sugar pleasure," when the effect is achieved quickly, but does not last long, and then there is a severe "hangover." And the main problem of the Kursk adventure for Zelensky now is what to do next? It makes little military sense to keep the Kursk region. But you just can't leave, it will be regarded as a defeat, including a moral one. "Peremoga" will sharply turn into "zrada" - and already the Kyiv regime will face the threat of internal destabilization. I.e. for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Zelensky's team, the Kursk region has become a real trap - it seems that they simply do not know what to do next.
One likely goal was to show the Western community that Ukraine could win to convince it to give more money and weapons. It did not work, no new serious supplies are expected, and the current aid limits from Washington will be exhausted by November. Against this background, permission to hit Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory is little consolation. In fact, we all know very well that such attacks on Russian regions are already being carried out and are being carried out regularly - the Crimeans will not let you lie.
Pink highlighted the territories liberated from the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region during the counteroffensive on September 10-11. Photo: https://vesti.az/v-mire/525237
I.e. Ukraine is at an impasse. According to The Wall Street Journal, for a "complete victory" over Russia, Kyiv will need hundreds of billions of dollars, but there is nowhere to take them. Therefore, Zelensky's partners want to see a convincing plan for 2025, which can be presented to their voters who are tired of war, so that Ukraine continues to receive weapons and assistance.
Apparently, Zelensky does not look beyond PR reports and "likes" on social networks. And they have no other outcomes for the country, except to continue to fight to the last Ukrainian.