Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, made a resonant statement about the nature of the war that Russia is waging and possible strategies for ending it. In his opinion, the Kursk region and any other border territory of Russia illustrate the “deliberately vile” style of warfare inherent in Russian aggression.
In the interview, Podolyak noted that Russia uses its border territories to deploy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), small air bases, and ballistic missile launchers, allowing it to launch large-scale strikes on the civilian population of other countries while under the illusion that its own territories will remain untouched.
“This is a war without the rules of warfare,” Podoliak noted, emphasizing that Russia considers its territories inviolable, disregarding the laws of war. It hopes that no one will be able to harm its logistics and infrastructure system on Russian territory.
Podoliak believes that Ukraine needs to use two main ways to change this approach. The first is to destroy Russia's military infrastructure on its territory through ground operations. He believes that Ukraine has the ability and the need to carry out such operations to protect its border regions.
The second path is to carry out long-range strikes deep inside Russia. Podoliak emphasizes the need for large-scale and regular strikes, which require significant reserves of missiles and the abandonment of “informal bans” on the use of these missiles on Russian territory.
