▲ Ukrainian soldiers take a break on a tank T-72 Soviet-made in the Sumy region near the Russian border.Afp Photo

Juan Pablo Duch

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 13, 2024, p. 25

Moscow. A day of confirming unpleasant facts for Moscow and putting an end to metaphors for kyiv. On Monday – the seventh day of fighting in the Russian region of Kursk – Russia announced for the first time that it has so far lost 28 towns and 480 square kilometers of territory, having already evacuated 121 thousand people, while it hopes to be able to get 59 thousand more out, while Ukraine, through its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, also referred for the first time to the operation in Kursk and its military command stated that it occupies more than double the territory admitted by the Russians, close to a thousand square kilometers.

Confirmation that this is not a simple anti-terrorist operation against isolated groups It came to light unexpectedly at an urgent meeting called by President Vladimir Putin at his residence in Novo-Ogoriovo, outside Moscow, on the situation in the border regions with Ukraine (Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk), in which the respective governors and the heads of Defense, Army General Staff, National Security Council, FSB (Federal Security Service), National Guard and other Russian government agencies participated.

Before listening to his subordinates, Putin stressed that The main task at the moment is the Ministry of Defense: to crush and expel the enemy from our territory and, together with the border guard troops (dependent on the FSB), to ensure the solid protection of our dividing lines..

There will be no negotiation

The Russian leader added: “Everything indicates that the enemy, with the help of its Western masters, is doing its bidding – the West is fighting against us with the help of Ukrainians – and is seeking to improve its position for future negotiations. But there can be no dialogue with people who indiscriminately attack peaceful people, civilian infrastructure or try to create threats to nuclear energy facilities. There is nothing to discuss with them.”

In his turn, Kursk Governor Aleksei Smirnov began his speech by presenting a picture that – as could be seen in the live broadcast of that part of the meeting by Russian state television – contrasted with the triumphalist reports of military spokesmen: “The situation in the region is complicated, at present the enemy completely controls 28 localities. The depth of penetration in the Kursk region is 12 kilometers and the width of the combat front is 40 kilometers…”, which is the same as an area of ​​480 square kilometers.

Putin’s anger

Surprised and annoyed, Putin interrupted Smirnov: Listen to me, Aleksey Borisovich (Smirnov’s name and patronymic), the military dependency will tell us how wide and how long it is there. Tell us better what the economic and social situation is in the region and what help you are providing to the population..

Smirnov stopped dead in his tracks and began to say: We evacuated, in accordance with your instructions, 121 thousand people in different districts and practically all the inhabitants of two of them, Sudzha and Korenevo, but we continue working to get 59 thousand more out..

Hours later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky openly acknowledged for the first time that his troops are fighting on Russian territory and, after holding a meeting with the military command yesterday, made public excerpts of the report presented to him by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Olesksandr Syrskyi:

We continue to conduct offensive operations in the Kursk region. At the moment we hold under our control about a thousand square kilometers of the territory of the Russian Federation.the general noted.

Meanwhile, DeppStateUA, a channel of a group of analysts close to Ukrainian military intelligence, spread on social networks that According to our calculations, the Ukrainian army managed to liberate 44 localities (in the Kursk region) and there are 10 percent more whose status has not yet been confirmed, speaking in moderate terms..

The truth is, considering that everyone minimizes their setbacks and exaggerates their successes, it must be somewhere in the middle.