The Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Roman Kostenko (the "Voice" faction) expressed doubts about the ability of the Russian Federation army to dislodge units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the territory of the Kursk region by October 1. Kostenko made this statement at a briefing on Wednesday, noting that the current situation at the front is difficult for Russian troops.
"If we act with the same strength and pace, and we act there seriously, we are currently building bridgeheads to the west and to the east, if we continue to do this, it will be difficult for Putin to achieve his goals," Kostenko said. He emphasized that the Ukrainian units in the Kursk region have significant combat experience, while the Russian units that were sent to fight them are less prepared and scattered in different directions.
According to Kostenko, everything will depend on the efforts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "If we can inflict such losses on them that they will not be able to advance further, they will have to pull up reserves," he added, pointing to the possibility of transferring Russian reserves from other areas of active hostilities, such as the east and south of Ukraine.
The People's Deputy noted that the operation of the Armed Forces in the Kursk region has a significant impact on the general situation at the front. "There were several tasks in the Kursk operation. Some of them are fulfilled, some are not. But one of them is to force the enemy to transfer his troops. And what do we see? The fact that the enemy really began to transfer part of his troops. We know about the 200th brigade from the Kramatorsk region, the 80th from the Dnieper region. They began to transfer part of the troops, but the strategic direction for them is Pokrovsk. And we see that, even realizing that they do not have the reserves to recapture Kursk, they still bet on the territory of Donetsk," Kostenko noted.
Media previously reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to oust the Armed Forces from the Kursk region by October 1. However, as the situation at the front shows, the implementation of this order is quite problematic due to the complexity and dynamics of hostilities.
