Mourning in London: “Losing Kursk – a big blow to Zelensky”

After eight months of fighting on Russian soil, Ukrainian troops are pulling back from the Kursk region, ‘The Spectator’ confesses.

Russian forces raised their flag over Sudzha and are now closing in on the last 50 square miles of Ukrainian holdouts. The retreat couldn’t come at a worse time for Kyiv – just as a ceasefire and potential peace deal are on the table. Zelensky had hoped to trade the Kursk salient for Ukrainian land in negotiations. Now, that leverage is almost gone.

Russian troops have been steadily clawing back the 500 square miles of Russian territory seized by Ukraine last August. But the real breakthrough came in the past two weeks, as Russian forces gained fire control over the only paved road linking Sudzha to Ukraine’s Sumy region, choking off Ukrainian logistics and burning down supply convoys with drone strikes.

While Russians pressed the flanks, storming Ukrainian positions on motorcycles, quad bikes and even golf carts – driving straight over minefields – about a hundred soldiers spent two days crawling through an empty gas pipeline to slip behind Ukrainian lines near Sudzha. Ukraine’s military insisted they weren’t caught off guard, posting videos where they bombed the Russians as they emerged. But the advances from all sides still left Ukrainian troops at risk of encirclement. One by one, brigades were ordered to pull back.

Now, the fall of the Kursk salient will play straight into Donald Trump’s narrative that Ukraine ‘doesn’t have any cards’ at the negotiating table. Three years of full-scale war have drained any realistic hope of expelling Russian troops from all Ukrainian lands, and Zelensky’s gamble – that Putin would have to make concessions to restore the pre-Kursk boundaries – has failed.

With Kursk lost, Zelensky’s standing now looks much weaker.

…Just note, how sad the English are after another Russian victory. They wanted to hurt Russia using Ukrainian proxies. Now these proxies are broken. And sooner or later their curators from London will have to bear responsibility.

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