Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that the Ukrainian assault on Russia’s Kursk Oblast shows that Moscow’s red lines and threats of retaliation are a bluff.
Zelensky made the comments while criticizing the US and its NATO allies for not allowing Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to launch long-range strikes inside Russian territory.
“We are witnessing a significant ideological shift – the naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines regarding Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war by some partners, has crumbled apart these days,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader claimed that if Ukraine had been allowed to fire NATO weapons deep inside Russia, it wouldn’t have had to launch the offensive in Kursk. He also claimed that long-range strikes would stop Russia’s gains in eastern Ukraine, which have become more rapid amid the fighting in Kursk.
“You must realize, both here and in the capitals where you work, that Ukraine is separated from stopping the advance of the Russian army at the front by only one decision, which we expect from our partners. And this is a decision on long-range capabilities,” he said.
While the US hasn’t signed off on long-range strikes in Russia, it is allowing Ukraine to use US-provided weapons in Kursk, and Russian officials have said US-provided HIMARS have been used in the assault. The invasion came a few months after President Biden gave Ukraine the greenlight to use US weapons in strikes on Russian border regions.
A US-backed invasion of Russia risks a major response from Moscow despite Zelensky downplaying the threat. Throughout the war, Russia has escalated in direct response to Ukrainian attacks on its territory. For example, Russia did not start the large-scale targeting of energy infrastructure in Ukraine until the first bombing of the Crimean Bridge, which took place in October 2022.
The use of NATO weapons inside Russian territory also increases the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the Western military alliance, which could quickly turn into nuclear war.
He appears to be suffering from flatulence of the cerebral sort.
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky" – after 20 May 2024 he is not President. According to Ukrainian constitution, the head of the state at the moment should be the chairman of Ukrainian parliament. Of course, after the coup 2014 Ukrainian constitution became a joke. Americans just appoint whoever they wish.
The presidential elections in Ukraine should happen on 31 March 2024. According to Ukrainian company Socis, in those elections Zaluzhny was about to get over 41%, Zelensky less than 24%. In second round Zaluzhny 67%, Zelensky 32%. Zaluzhny is very close to Ukrainian neo-Nazis (actually he is one of them), as we know from experience, sometimes Ukrainian neo-Nazis are changing sides quite suddenly. Kiva for example. So, from American viewpoint, Zelensky is more reliable. He is just clown, and he is always ready to do whatever ordered from Washington. The point is, many of far-right in any country are really care about their nation, so when they see an approaching disaster, they are beginning to think how to save what is possible to save.
A very interesting thing happened when Hitler's "Barbarossa army" took the Western Ukrainian city of Lvov. The German commander failed to immediately secure the local radio station. When Ukrainian nationalists found out, they rushed to the station to broadcast the establishment of an independent (=out of the Soviet Union) Ukrainian state allied with NAZI Germany.
Hitler was furious because he did not want an independent Ukrainian state. He wanted Ukraine to become a German colony.
Yes, Hitler was against such an idea. However Canaris (chief of Abwehr) supported the creation of Ukrainian pro-German vassal state. Obviously, from the viewpoint of interests of German Nazi empire, Canaris was right. It was one of big Hitler's blunder.
Average Russkie praising the leader of the Abwehr
Average moron like ukr vila can write nothing but nonsense.
Well below average, actually. Of course I tend to hang out at SlashDot, which can boast trolls that put Grendel to shame.
Noice Beowulf reference, Bix !
I may add that Reddit might still be the gold standard for s**t online experience.
That was 80 years ago and not all Ukrainian nationalists were Nazis, some were sensible people trying to prevent their own extermination at the hands of the Soviets.
Google "Holodomor"
Wtf are you even on about? Zalužni was never a candidate, and most Ukrainians love Zelenskyy, which you would never know bcause your poll probably came from Russian Propoganda HQ. Countries don't have elections during wars, there are better things to worry about.
A person who knew Putin well once remarked "when you drive him into a corner, he will come out fighting you." Apparently, Putin is not yet cornered or else, he does not have the means to come out fighting.
I sincerely hope so. Because if it is not the case, the coming out of the corner will costs us all our lives.
"The Ukrainian leader claimed that if Ukraine had been allowed to fire NATO weapons deep inside Russia, it wouldn’t have had to launch the offensive in Kursk."
That's nonsense. Territory is never captured by missile & artillery salvoes, or airstrikes, alone. The Ukrainians wanted to seize Russian Federation homeland territory for PR and negotiating purposes.
Capture is through troops on the ground.
As I understand the Russians are fully aware this is an invasion by NATO of Russian territory, a NATO occupation of Russian land. If there is a red line left, it is probably shaped as a button of that color.
I wonder what the "TSN Turning-Point" would be. Russians capturing an active duty NATO soldier in Kursk fighting for the Ukrainians? One that specifically is not a "volunteer" or mercenary, but an actual "advisor" ?
Thanks for expanding my vocabulary. I don't know. If there exist people to who the gravity of the situation hasn't dawned on them yet, I doubt it will under any circumstance short of them actually in the process of being carbonized.
If they're encased him in Carbonite, they should be quite well protected. IF they survived the freezing process, that is.
They're there. Coincidentally I just ran into this:
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/americas-shadow-war-in-ukraine
As the Ukraine war enters its most perilous phase, with Kiev’s forces fighting inside Russia, the United States is operating a formal “sensitive activities” detachment that is active in providing direct military support to the beleaguered country. The detachment, never before disclosed, is run by U.S. special operations forces, and with its Ukrainian counterparts, provides on-the-battlefield support, including near-real time targeting intelligence, operators say.
Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the Biden administration has issued firm reassurances that there are no U.S. boots on the ground in Ukraine. The statement has always been misleading because “boots” only refers to conventional forces and excludes CIA and military special operations personnel
These Russkie talking points are killing me… NATO is not "invading Russia." They are defending themselves from an idiot.
Are your lies, like you, as dense as Lead ? They'll need to be to shield your flimsy intellectual DNA against actual thermonuclear radiation. Which is how this ends if we make-pretend like you see to.
My lies are dense as hydrogen; my truths as dense as lead
They don't aim on "annexing kursk"
However, the other belligirent aims on annexing some more land
I have to agree Putin seems to be, now clearly, full of S###! He should realize that NATO is going to bring Russia to it's knees as it wants all the great minerals and farm land Russia has, also Ukraine,,just a matter of time. Without Russia China will become a vassal state to the USA and Europe. Once this happens all our freedoms enshrined in the BOR will be gone. Our Constitution shredded,, as it already has been. The people of the world will then be led by our great new leaders, Harris and Walz, thrilling…..
Ahm, het is andersom. Zonder China, zouden Rusland een marionet van CHINA worden!
Ahm, het is andersom. Zonder China, zouden Rusland een marionet van CHINA worden!
Ahm, het is andersom. Zonder China, zouden Rusland een marionet van CHINA worden!
I hope that you just forgot the /sarcasm tag. If not then you might want to learn something about the history and geography of Russia, and then the culture of the country. There is no way that ends well for the US.
For once, I do agree with Zelensky. But the fact that he is saying exactly that tells you all you need to know about how little he cares for the Ukrainians. It's like he is saying, "Hey Putin. I punched you in the nose. Now show the Ukrainian people what you got."
… but then, Russia, historically, has absorbed unbelieveabe amounts of punishment before responding … and she does appear to be doing it again … only question is, Will she wait until a nuclear hit?
Exactly, the perfect “LOSE IT BEFORE YOU USE IT” scenario. The ultimate “TURN THE OTHER CHEEK!” The maximum “CUT OFF YOUR FACE TO SPITE YOUR NOSE!” Putin doesn’t seem to understand. His enemies are EVIL AND STUPID. The WORST EVER ATTRIBUTES of an enemy.
They’re certainly stupid in the higher sense; but, civilized people are largely defenseless against lies, concentrating on exposing the truth instead of killing the liar right off.
Putin is evil and stupid, at least in America and Europe we were western liberal democracies, not a democracy 'under an authoritarian dictatorship"
You've made your own sock puppet to up-vote your posts, since no one else will? Yeesh. They don't make trolls like they used to.
I don’t have a “sock puppet”
stop talking Мр. Схеец. The only "punishment" russia has ever taken was from the Nazis, who they have very little emnity for nowadays.
This "punch in Putin's nose" is no more than a PR victory at the expense of Ukrainian military efficiency. After this punch, the general situation in fronts deteriorated sharply. Ukrainian reserves, which are particularly badly needed in Donbass front, are burned useless and in huge numbers in a new created Kursk front.
I agree. Zelensky himself is an ugly PR hoax.
Are you a Russian because you really sound like one.
"Now show the Ukrainian people what you got."
Putin could rescind his promise to avoid targeting Zelensky.
I like how you put it down: “could rescind his promise to avoid targeting Zelensky.”. Reminds me of something that looks bad but feels good, if you catch my drift.
Ukraine should fire missiles at the Kremlin
The great thing about dumb ideas is that they're plentiful and cheap.
They come out of 2 places: The Kremlin and DC
Zelinsky's been useful up to this point, helping towards the Russian goal of 'demilitarizing' Ukraine by throwing away massive amounts of resources in useless offensives and insisting on defending places like Bahkmut far longer than reasonable. An incursion into "Mother Russia" (that's a real concept there among the general public) is going to require a serious response though. The Russian people are going to insist, and nationalist that he is Putin is going to listen.
Patience my son… Patience…!
Like I've said even before Kursk… 12 FAB-3000 in Kiev.
Russian propaganda bot, no human wound think that,
You aren't passing any Turing Test anytime soon either. Only by virtue of A.I. having grown smarter and more intellectually competent than your statements on here, am I assured you are actually human.
Thanks 😀
Right about that moron… Not a bot just another degenerate uman animal just like you!
tleast i dontsupport the ruskies
That’s just COWARDICE.
Too many civilians. Putin is not Netanyahu (or Bush for that matter).
It doesn’t need to be in the middle of the town!
Here's Martyanov today on this:
https://youtu.be/8H7G4D-VHjo
Elensky is a horse's ass. But you probably knew that already.
Let's cut to the chase here. We, the United States of Atrocities, and NATO attacked Russia, within Russia, using the Kiev proxy army. American sounding voices were heard over intercepted communications.
Yapyapyapyapyap
1. NATO did not attack Russia
2. NATO did not attack Russia within Russia
3. Kyiv is not our "proxy army"
4. On February 24th, 2022, NO NATO FORCES INVADED RUSSIA! Russian forces invaded UKRAINE
They are
""The Ukrainian leader claimed that if Ukraine had been allowed to fire NATO weapons deep inside Russia, it wouldn’t have had to launch the offensive in Kursk.""
i think if they did that Russia would wipe off the map entirely
"Fuck around and find out."
Also, people need to stop talking about an "invasion" of Russia. It was at best an "incursion" and since it only got 10-11 miles in and stopped dead when it hit the first line of real Russian army (as opposed to a handful of border guards), it's hardly a big deal – except in the minds of the ignorant.
More and more, people like Pepe Escobar are suggesting that once it was underway, Russia let it proceed before stopping it as a means to justify opening a new front in Sumy as well as escalating the "SMO" to a "CTO" – counter-terrorism operation, under which the rules of engagement would change to "take no prisoners" – including the Kiev regime in that.
It's also been suggested that the real issue was the poor performance of the governor of the Kursk oblast in securing the border. I find that unlikely as it should have been the Russian army, not the Rosqvardia, in charge of border security during wartime. That has raised the question of Ministry of Defense corruption again, according to Pepe Escobar.
Beyond that I have no comment on that since I doubt anyone knows. But I would recommend escalating the Russian operation to bring this war to a close, as does much of the Russian population.
The fact that Russia hasn't done some massive response in two weeks means nothing – it takes time to re-orient an entire army, draw up new plans, and perform the logistics necessary to execute same.
As I've said since the war started, once Russia decides the time is right, their movement will be unstoppable and will roll over Ukraine to the Polish border. It's taken much longer than I expected, but there were good reasons for that. Perhaps we're close to the point where it will finally happen.
How could you be so stupid as to convince yourself…… the offensive has "stalled out?" Lets name a few Russian offensives that have ACTUALLY stalled out:
1. Battle of Kyiv
2. Kherson Offensive
3. 2022 Kharkiv offensive
4. Battle of the Svatove-Kremmina Line
5. May 2024 invasion of Kharkiv Oblast
If you believe that the Russians are "stalling" the Ukrainian advance, then there is no hope for you.
Ukrainian goals included taking Sudzha and the gas pipeline the first day, the border guards and local militia held out for three. Captured Ukrainians say that their ultimate goal was to capture Kurchatov, where the Kurskaya nuclear plant is located, the power plant wasn't specifically mentioned but there's no other strategic asset in the town. They were so intent on arriving there that they drove their Strykers right past outposts of Russian soldiers without engaging, which to me sounds insane to leave enemies active and armed in your rear.
My first post when I read about the incursion was, "They're going to regret that." Now we're waiting on their response, as well as Iran's, it might be an interesting couple of weeks.