US intelligence and weapons key to Ukraine's Kursk offensive

2024-08-15 22:36:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Excellent Ukrainian intelligence and US weaponry are being credited as key elements that enabled the rapid advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory over the past week. Some analysts believe they could advance even faster if Washington allows them to use the most sophisticated weapons at their disposal.

Ukrainian forces continued to advance in the Kursk region on Wednesday, the ninth day of their first push into Russia's interior since World War II. Ukrainian forces now control a territory of about 100 square kilometers and over 70 settlements inside Russia.

"Units of the defense forces are continuing the offensive on the territory of the Kursk region," Ukrainian army commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a virtual conference on Wednesday. "Since morning, Ukrainian forces have advanced 1 to 2 kilometers."

Former Ukrainian military general staff spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov told VOA that information from Ukrainian intelligence and US-provided artillery missile systems, known by the acronym HIMARS, were critical to this extraordinary advancement.

"Ukrainian intelligence agencies functioned perfectly," he said. "Some of the enemy reinforcements, which were quickly sent to help the Russian army in the Kursk region, were destroyed by artillery and drones. Maybe even airplanes".

"And of course, the real blow to the Russian military was delivered by the HIMARS missile systems, which destroyed a large amount of Russian weapons, equipment and soldiers," he said.

But the pace at which the Ukrainian military is advancing has slowed in recent days – more due to issues related to the supply of Ukrainian forces than to the resistance of Russian forces.

According to some experts, the best way to overcome this obstacle is to allow Ukraine more autonomy in the use of long-range weapons provided by the West - in particular the MGM-140 tactical missile system, known by the acronym ATACMS, which uses long-range missiles of up to 300 kilometers.

"I think Washington is the main problem in this regard," said John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"If the United States allowed the use of the ATACMS system on Russian territory, the British and French would allow the use of self-guided missiles that they have given to Ukraine," Mr. Hardie told VOA.

But despite the success of Ukrainian forces in the Russian Kursk region, Russia is continuing its offensive along the front line in the eastern part of Ukraine. Its forces are approaching the cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk.

However, according to analyst and professor Angela Stent at the Brookings Institution and Georgetown University, this action by Ukraine in Kursk should not be seen as an "act driven by desperation."

"I think the Ukrainians are trying to give the Russians a dose of their own medicine: to cause uncertainty in Russia and perhaps question the capabilities of the Russian military," she told VOA. "They accomplished that goal."

In addition to having to defend Russian territory for the first time in decades, Russian President Vladimir Putin — who has insisted from the start on calling the large-scale attack on Ukraine "a special military operation" — is still reluctant to admit that has brought his country into war.

Since last week, he has described the Ukrainian offensive as a "high-level provocation" and on Tuesday announced the launch of a "counter-terrorist operation" to respond.

According to Russian political analyst Ivan Preobrazhensky, Mr. Putin is choosing his words carefully so as not to draw attention to the failure to protect the country's borders.

Meanwhile, Russian forces are reportedly beefing up defenses in those parts of the Kursk region they still control — including areas around the village of Viktorovka, about 45 kilometers from Russia's border with Ukraine — while officials in Kiev are discussing the creation of a military command office in Russian territory that is now occupied by Ukrainian troops./ VOA