Russians living in the border region of Kursk are criticizing the slow and confused response by civic and military officials to the Ukrainian military incursion that began Tuesday.
“Nobody cared about us,” said an angry Kursk resident quoted by the Moscow Times on Thursday. “The refugees from ‘that country’ were given everything at once … and [local] people left for nowhere and with nothing.”
This was essentially a complaint about ethnic Russians fleeing into Russia from the ersatz “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, unilaterally declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he invaded Ukraine in February 2022, receiving far more care and assistance than Russians who suddenly find themselves on the receiving end of Ukrainian artillery.
“Why did our state allow this? If you can’t protect your people, do an evacuation. As a result, there are victims again,” another disgruntled Kursk resident complained.
Some Russians, including bloggers who generally support the invasion of Ukraine, complained that the Russian high command was strangely unprepared for the Ukrainians to strike back.
“People at the front knew that the enemy would definitely try to strike a blow like that. But it seems to me that there are other people, maybe even wearing military uniforms … who were far from the front and did not believe in such a thing,” said a scathing post on the pro-war Telegram channel “Starshe Eddy.”
Official pronouncements from the Russian government claimed the Ukrainian incursion has been repelled after two days of fighting, but even the most fiery of pro-war bloggers and regime-friendly reporters told a different story, fretting that the Ukrainians managed to capture almost a dozen Russian villages while pushing almost ten miles deep into Kursk.
“Over the past 24 hours, our region has been heroically resisting attacks by Ukrainian Nazis. All emergency services have been put on high alert,” Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov declared on Wednesday, claiming the situation was “under control.”
Independent reports said the fighting was still in progress on Wednesday. Russian officials complained the Ukrainian invasion force employed some high-end American military hardware, including Stryker armored fighting vehicles.
Ukraine announced it was deploying Strykers in February. Ukrainian military officials said the vehicles were highly effective at pushing back Russian forces in Kharkiv.
The Biden White House seemed to be completely out of the loop, as U.S. officials said inquiries have been sent to the Ukrainian military asking exactly what they are doing in Russia and what equipment they are doing it with.
“Nothing about our policy has changed, and with the actions that they are taking today, they are not in violation of our policy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday, even as other Biden officials said Ukraine did not consult with the administration in advance and has yet to explain the strategic objectives of the invasion.
The most common theory is that Ukraine wants to hinder Russia’s ability to launch attacks from Kursk, but the Washington Post quoted analysts who said Kyiv might have a more ambitious plan to “turn off all Russian gas deliveries to Europe as a leveraging point.”
The area under attack includes an important pipeline hub near the town of Sudzha. Ukraine makes a lot of money from transit fees on Russian gas shipments to Europe, but may have decided the strategic objective of shutting down Russia’s energy sales to Europe is more important than its own share of the income. This would also explain why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decided not to inform whoever is currently running the Biden administration of the attack.
Russia’s state energy company, Gazprom, said on Thursday that gas is still flowing through Ukraine at normal levels. Ukrainian gas transit managers agreed. On the other hand, some Russian military bloggers claim Ukraine has captured the gas facility at Sudzha.
The Ukrainian government publicly acknowledged the attack for the first time on Thursday morning, as Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the “root case of any escalation” was Russia’s “unequivocal aggression.”
“War is war, with its own rules, where the aggressor inevitably reaps corresponding outcomes,” Podolyak said.
Although he was not specific about Ukraine’s objectives in Kursk, Podolyak said that invading Russia could destroy Russia’s faith that it can “attack neighboring countries’ territories with impunity.” He suggested a less confident Russia might be more willing to make a deal to end the war.
Also on Thursday, Chechnyan special forces commander Gen. Apti Alaudinov became the first Russian-aligned military leader to admit the Ukrainians inflicted significant casualties and captured villages when they attacked Kursk.
“Yes, our men have died, that’s a fact. The enemy has entered several settlements,” he said, agreeing with Russian military blogger assessments that Ukraine was able to capture a few miles of Russian territory.
“The situation is not irreversible, nothing supernatural has happened,” Alaudinov added to soften the bad news.
