Zelensky claims Kursk incursion showed West’s red lines 'naïve'
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The New York Times says Ukraine's cross-border incursion appears to have fallen short of one key objective: forcing Russian troops to be redeployed from critical battlefronts in the Donetsk region.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky leaves Downing Street after meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP)
Ukraine’s unexpected offensive into western Russia, now in its third week, demonstrates to the West that concerns over the repercussions of strikes on Russian territory are misplaced and should be reconsidered, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated on Monday.
As Ukrainian forces attempted to press deeper into Russia, Zelensky took advantage of the current situation to challenge a long-standing limitation imposed by Kiev's backers: the restriction on using Western-supplied long-range weapons against Russia, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Ukraine argues that such weapons are crucial for disrupting Russian military operations.
"The whole naïve, illusory concept of so-called red lines regarding Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war by some partners, has crumbled these days somewhere near Sudzha," Zelensky said Monday in a speech to Ukrainian ambassadors to other countries, referring to the western Russian town of Sudzha, captured by Ukrainian forces last week.
The newspaper recalled that for over two years, Washington prevented Ukraine from using its supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, fearing an escalation of the conflict between Moscow and the West.
However, after months of Ukrainian lobbying, the United States and other NATO countries adjusted their policies this spring, allowing Ukraine to carry out such strikes—but only on military targets within a limited range inside Russia.
In his address, Zelensky acknowledged that Ukraine deliberately kept its allies uninformed when planning the recent incursion, knowing that some partners would oppose an operation crossing what they considered "the strictest of all the red lines that Russia has."
The Ukrainian leader claimed that Moscow’s weak response to the offensive should serve as a global indicator that Russia is no longer the formidable superpower it once appeared to be.
He stressed that "it is the time when the world is shedding its last and very naïve illusions about Russia."
The New York Times said that Ukraine’s offensive has successfully captured several settlements and one town in Russia.
However, according to the newspaper, the incursion appears to have fallen short of one key objective: forcing Russian troops to be redeployed from critical battlefronts in the Donetsk region, east of Ukraine.
This is evident, as on Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces had captured the eastern town of New York (Niu-York), which the Ukrainian military claims still holds approximately 20%.
The newspaper pointed out that Zelensky’s comments marked some of his sharpest critiques of Western allies to date and underscored the growing frustration in Kiev, where many officials feel that Western powers—cautious of escalating the conflict—have provided just enough support to prevent Ukraine from losing to Russia, but not enough to enable it to decisively win the war.
The Ukrainian president also claimed on Monday that his forces now control over 1,250 square kilometers (480 square miles) of Russia's Kursk region.
In assessing the achievements of the Ukrainian offensive, military experts suggest that one of its aims is to force Moscow to divert troops from Ukrainian front lines to reinforce its own border regions.
However, Russia has only withdrawn a limited number of units from the Ukrainian battlefield, instead continuing to press assaults in eastern Donetsk, The New York Times cited Western military analysts and American officials as saying.
Analysts also warn that Kiev had to rely on its reserves for the cross-border incursion, potentially complicating its ability to respond to Russian attacks on the eastern front, which seems in line with the situation on the battlefield, as since the offensive began two weeks ago, Ukraine has rapidly lost ground near Pokrovsk, a crucial city in Donetsk.
"If our partners lifted all the current restrictions on the use of weapons on Russian territory, we would not need to physically enter particularly the Kursk region to protect our Ukrainian citizens in the border communities and eliminate Russia’s potential for aggression," Zelensky told Ukrainian ambassadors on Monday.
He explained that the situation on the eastern front is so dire, that "any further delay by our partners in terms of long-range capabilities is becoming de facto, perhaps, the most effective support for Russia’s offensive potential."
Read more: Zelensky criticizes UK government, urges 'bold decisions' from West
