kyiv claims its incursion into Kursk is a success // The Kremlin says it is expelling Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops from this region

▲ Rescuing survivors of bombing of a building in Zaporizhia, Ukraine.Ukrainian police photo via AP

Juan Pablo Duch

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, September 6, 2024, p. 25

Moscow. Are we ready to negotiate (with Ukraine)? We have never refused, but we want to do so not on the basis of who knows what outdated demands, but on the basis of those documents that we had agreed upon, and practically signed, in Istanbul (in March 2022).said Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to attendees at the Eastern Economic Forum, which opened in Vladivostok.

And he continued: I have already said this many times: we had practically agreed with the representatives of the Kiev government on the parameters of a possible political settlement. Even the head of the Ukrainian delegation (David Arakhamia), who is still the coordinator of the ruling party’s faction in the Rada, its parliament, checked every page of these agreements. Of course, there were still some loose ends, but in general the document had his approval..

But, in Putin’s words, Mr. (Boris) Johnson came and instructed the Ukrainians to fight to the last Ukrainian, as is happening today, to achieve the strategic defeat of Russia.. If they had not listened to their foreign masters The war would have ended long ago, he noted.

Analysts are wondering to what extent what the Kremlin chief said in Vladivostok is a change in Russia’s position regarding possible negotiations: until now, after the Ukrainian army crossed the border on August 6, Putin said that After that, nothing can be negotiated. with Ukraine, which in turn replaced its previous proposal – immediately rejected by Kiev – to negotiate only if it agreed to meet a list of demands, such as withdrawing its troops from Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, renouncing its membership in the North Atlantic Alliance and disarming its army.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer offered his country as a possible venue for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, writing yesterday on his social media account X: We note the statement by the President of Russia on his readiness to negotiate a political settlement with Ukraine. Any negotiations must take place without preconditions and in person. Austria, the seat of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is ready to support a just and solid peace, as well as to host the negotiations..

Perhaps anticipating the possible uproar caused by his announcement in Vladivostok, the Russian president specified that, in order for negotiations to take place, Ukraine You have to ask for it.

Meanwhile, Putin was pleased with how the Russian army is gradually expelling Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, where they have been occupying an area of ​​1,300 square kilometers for more than a month, but for him the most important thing is that kyiv failed in its goal of distracting our forces by move large and well-trained units to the border regionswith which the enemy “weakened in key sectors of the front and our troops intensified their offensive in the Donbas (Donetsk and Lugansk), which is our number one priority.

The head of the Russian Executive said that the Ministry of Defense informs him several times a day of the advances in Donetsk and Lugansk, where the enemy is suffering colossal losses in personnel and weapons. The military, it should be noted, in its war report, stated yesterday that Ukraine has already lost 10,100 soldiers and 81 tanks in Kurska figure that many observers doubt.

All indications are that exaggeration is not exclusive to the Russian military command. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with NBC News (the news division of the American TV channel), that Russia has moved 60,000 troops to the Kursk frontwhich also surprised many experts, since recently the commander in chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrskyi, assured that Russia moved from other fronts to about 30 thousand soldiers.

According to Zelensky, the lack of long-range missiles and projectiles, as well as intelligence information that Russia He intended to invade the Sumy region of Ukraine, which made us move forward with the operation in Kursk, which is a complete success..

As of yesterday, Ukraine has a new government, after the castling, dismissals, mergers and other moves promoted by Zelensky and ratified by its parliamentary majority were concluded. Thus, it is worth noting that Denys Shmyhal repeats as Prime Minister; Andri Sibiga leaves the Office of the President of which he was deputy head and is the new foreign minister in place of Dmytro Kuleba, who will be relocated to a new position, probably at the head of an embassy; Iryna Vereshchuk ceased to be Deputy Prime Minister to take charge of Deputy Director of the Office of the President with the same functions as the one in the previous post. reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

The other deputy prime minister, Olga Stefanyshina, will also take over the Justice portfolio; Vitaly Koval will take charge of Agriculture; and two deputy heads of the Presidential Office will be handed over to Culture Minister Mykola Tochytskyi, who is already the head of the Reconstruction and Development of Territories portfolio, Oleksy Kuleba.