Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi shared with the press the latest situation regarding the military operation launched three weeks ago in the Kursk region of Russia, saying that Ukraine now controls 1,294 square kilometers and 100 settlements and captured 594 Russian soldiers.
While Syrskyi announced that the operation in Kursk is continuing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a news conference before Independence Day that his country will celebrate on Saturday that they are ready to present their plan to end the war with Russia to the U.S. Zelenskyy said he would present the plan to U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, who will leave office on Jan. 20, 2025. Zelenskyy noted that the plan has various stages under the headings of diplomacy and economy. Although he did not give much detail, it can be assumed that the recent attack in Kursk is part of this plan. They probably want to use their gains in Kursk as leverage against the territories Russia has seized in Ukraine when they sit down at the table.
Russia has occupied about 15% of Ukraine. It is unclear how effective the thousand square kilometers that Ukraine has taken from 17,100 million square kilometers of Russian territory will be in the negotiations. Moreover, Russia has popular support in the cities it captured in eastern Ukraine. There is no pro-Ukrainian mass in Kursk. Therefore, it is obvious that they will not be able to hold on here for long.
Russia has already started to deploy 30,000 troops to the region in response to the developments in Kursk. On the other hand, it has already launched one of its biggest airstrikes against Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force announced that the entire country is under threat of ballistic weapon attacks. Armed drones are also being used in the attacks. Russia is reportedly using long-range air and sea-based precision weapons to strike power plants and energy infrastructure across Ukraine, including in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and the Odesa regions. Cities where explosions have been reported include Sumy, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv and Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Biden described the strikes as shocking and unacceptable, while U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned Russia’s missile and drone strikes on civilian infrastructures.
Yes, the outcome is not hard to predict. Zelenskyy, who does whatever he can to get the support of the West, will soon withdraw his troops from Kursk and lose many of them. And there will be no coming to the table with Russia. Because contrary to what Zelenskyy tells his people, the U.S. and the U.K. do not want to stop this war that they started by provoking Putin.
U.S. politician Robert Kennedy Jr.’s claims are clear proof that the war, for which the poor Ukrainian people are paying the price, will not end as long as Zelenskyy is in power. He said that in April 2022, Biden sent Boris Johnson to Ukraine to tear up the peace treaty that Zelenskyy had already signed with the Russians. Kennedy referred to Biden’s statement that the purpose of the war was regime change in Russia. He also referred to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s statement that America’s goal in the war was to deplete the Russian army and reduce its capacity to fight elsewhere in the world. These goals, of course, have nothing to do with protecting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
It should be recalled that these words confirm the Kremlin’s recent statements on peace talks.
