Russia redirects troops from Ukraine as fighting intensifies in Kursk
Reports Politico that some units of Vladimir Putin's army have been withdrawn from Ukraine's occupied territories. Analysts indicate that this is the result of Ukraine's ongoing offensive. The withdrawn units are supposed to be transferred to Russian oblasts, where intense fighting is currently taking place.
Since August 6, Ukraine has been conducting an operation in the Russian Kursk oblast. Dozens of villages have been captured, and fighting is ongoing, including in the Sudzha area. Russia had to evacuate over 120,000 residents. Ukraine has not publicly revealed the purpose of the operation, which surprised Russia after months of gradual advances by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine.
Politico reports that Moscow decided to withdraw some units from the occupied Ukrainian lands to redirect them to the Kursk oblast. According to Ukrainian army spokesperson Dmytro Lykhovyi in an interview, Russia has relocated certain military units from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Lithuania's Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas warned Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia is also sending soldiers from Kaliningrad. The Lithuanian politician is currently visiting Kyiv, where he met with the President of Ukraine. During the meeting, they discussed the Ukrainian army's current needs and the defense industry's development.
How will Putin respond?
According to Col. (ret.) Piotr Lewandowski from the Polish Territorial Defense Training Center, two Russian responses are expected. "One is the expulsion of Ukrainian troops from the area taken by Ukrainians after entering the territory of the Russian Federation. The second is a probable massive airstrike on targets in Ukraine," he said in an interview with WP.
"These could be large cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odessa, Sumy. The Kremlin will likely say that since Kyiv committed an act of terror, Russia may respond with a bombing attack," the expert assesses.
He reminds us that Russia will claim it is an anti-terrorist operation and that the terrorists are Ukrainians. "In Russian doctrine, any attack on their territory is supposed to be met with a response using nuclear weapons. But Putin will not respond that way. He will not call the Ukrainian operation a full-scale war by Kyiv because he would be criticized for not using nuclear weapons. So, he will maneuver," says the former military man.
Source: Politico
