Putin's forces redeployed amid Ukrainian offensive in Kursk
The Politico service reports that some units of Vladimir Putin's army have been withdrawn from Ukraine's occupied territories.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 The withdrawn units are to be redeployed to Russian regions where fierce battles are occurring.
Since August 6th, Ukraine has been conducting operations in the Russian Kursk region. Dozens of villages have been captured, and fighting is taking place, among other places, in the Sudzha area. Russia had to evacuate over 120,000 residents. Ukraine has not publicly disclosed the goal of the operation, which surprised Russia after months of gradual advances by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine.
The Politico portal writes that Moscow decided to withdraw some units from the occupied Ukrainian lands to redirect them to the Kursk region. "Russia has relocated some of its units from both Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine's south," said Ukrainian army spokesman Dmytro Lykhovyi in an interview with the service.
Meanwhile, Lithuania's Defence Minister Laurynas Kasciunas warned Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russia is also sending soldiers from Kaliningrad. The Lithuanian politician is currently visiting Kyiv, where he met with the Ukrainian president. During the meeting, the Ukrainian army's current needs and the development of the defence industry were discussed.
How will Putin respond?
According to Col. Lewandowski from the Territorial Defence Forces Training Centre, two Russian responses are to be expected. "One is the expulsion of Ukrainian troops from the area that they have taken after entering the territory of the Russian Federation. The other is a likely massive airstrike on targets in Ukraine," he said in an interview.
"These could be large cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odessa, Sumy. The Kremlin will probably claim that since Kyiv committed an act of terror, Russia might respond with a bombing attack," the expert assessed.
As he recalls, Russia will insist that it is an anti-terrorist operation, and the terrorists are the Ukrainians. "In Russian doctrine, any attack on their territory must be met with a response using nuclear weapons. But Putin will not respond that way. He will not say that the Ukrainian operation is a full-scale war because he would be criticized for not using nuclear weapons. So he will manoeuvre," said the former military man.
