The regime of the Russian Federation has apparently decided to ignore the scale of the problem that Ukrainian forces are creating for them with the operation in the Kursk region, said Lieutenant Colonel Janek Kesselmann, deputy commander of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center, UNN reports with reference to ERR.
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"At this time, the strategic initiative is still in Ukraine's hands thanks to the unprecedentedly successful operation in the Kursk region," Kesselmann said.
According to Kesselmann, the destruction of the bridges across the Seim River poses a dilemma for the Russian Federation: to retreat to units that are potentially isolated, thus bringing the territory under Ukrainian control, or to use resources to restore the connecting route. "Both dilemmas are difficult to resolve, and neither solution is likely to be easy for the Russian Federation to implement," Kesselmann said.
According to him, Russian troops are currently creating a defense line on the Rylsk-Lgov-Kursk line. At the same time, he said, "the strategic dilemma that Russia is facing at this moment has already been created." "The dilemma is as follows: either to stop the offensive in the direction of Donetsk region or to recognize the presence of Ukraine in the territory of Kursk region," Kesselman said.
"It seems that the regime of the Russian Federation has decided to ignore the scale of the problem that the Ukrainian armed forces are creating for them in the Kursk region," he added.
"To summarize, we can say that Russia failed to adequately respond to Ukraine's actions in the Kursk region. Russia continues to put pressure on Ukrainian units in the Donetsk sector, where intense fighting continues. But it is not clear that Russia is getting closer to the strategic goals it stated at the beginning of the war," Kesselmann said.