For Russian rebels engaged in opposition to Moscow who’ve joined the Ukrainian ranks, the offensive launched on August 6 by Kyiv’s military within the Kursk area of Russia may have been a possibility after a 12 months and a half of clandestine operations and limited-range raids. It may have been a reunion with dwelling. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian military normal employees determined in any other case: Russian supporters had been stored out of Kyiv’s most daring operation in two and a half years.
Each Ilya Ponomarev, the politician in command of the Freedom of Russia Legion, and Denis Kapustin, often known as “Rex,” the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), confirmed that their models have been excluded. The 2 males additionally confirmed a way more delicate piece of knowledge, which has grow to be an open secret in Kyiv over the weeks, however which no official in Kyiv will touch upon publicly: The GUR, the Ukrainian navy intelligence service, which coordinates the Russian rebels’ actions and, above all, carries out its personal operations in enemy territory, has been excluded from “Operation Kursk,” or a minimum of from its preliminary assault section, by the final employees.
“The GUR and its Russian fighters have been excluded from the operation, however not for navy causes,” stated a supply near the insurgent actions. “It is extra for private causes: [Ukrainian army commander General Oleksandr] Syrskyi, who has a sure rivalry with [military intelligence chief General Kyrylo] Budanov, wished his second of glory if the operation was profitable.”
The target is now political
The Russian rebels, who’ve taken half in numerous incursions into Russia since their first raid in March 2023 within the Bryansk area, then in a bigger operation in June 2023 within the Belgorod area, try to not present an excessive amount of frustration at not being current within the Kursk area.
For Ponomarev, who, along with the armed group Freedom of Russia, coordinates a “Russian Parliament” in exile which meets twice a 12 months in Warsaw, Poland, the target is now political. “If Kyiv wished, we may administer these territories in Russia. Our motion has former native officers, together with from the Kursk area, who may handle an alternate native energy to that of the Kremlin.”
Ponomarev, who claims that “this feature is below dialogue in Kyiv,” just lately flew to Washington, believing that “the primary impediment is on the aspect of Ukraine’s allies, particularly the Individuals, who worry something which may resemble a regime change coverage in Moscow.”
Going through as much as a sure distrust
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