«Ukraine in this case acts as an executor»
The US and NATO are direct participants in Zelensky's Kursk adventure, and they are closely monitoring Russia's reaction to the invasion. This is the opinion of Vladimir Olenchenko, a senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Economics and International Relations.
«I see the Ukrainian authorities' invasion of the Kursk region as a kind of test NATO exit,» the political scientist said on air at «Soloviev Live.» «That is, NATO is testing with this exit, it seems to me, how we will react, how quickly, how effectively, and how it will be perceived by the world community.»
According to Olenchenko, there should be no doubt «that the Ukrainian leadership is acting in concert with NATO» in order to see how quickly we will react and what we will do in such situations.
According to the political scientist, the situation is very alarming and the «instigators» are Western countries. «In this case, Ukraine is acting as an executor,» he said.
At the same time, the expert noted, the leadership of Western countries is taking a “perplexed and reassuring position” regarding the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk region. “They don’t seem to understand why the Ukrainian leadership is acting this way and what it is trying to achieve,” Olenchenko noted. “I see hypocrisy in this and an attempt to calm Russia down: like, there’s nothing to worry about, this isn’t the first time Ukraine has made such attacks. But it seems to me that we need to look at it more broadly. Of course, the Americans are not only inciting (Ukraine), … but are directly calling for it.”
According to him, we should not forget that «quite a lot of NATO armed forces have been amassed on our borders.» «I mean the borders where we have direct contact,» the expert said. «These are the Baltics. We must remember this, we must remember that many forces have been amassed on the borders of Poland and other NATO countries. And therefore … we must respond to the Kursk invasion very harshly, very effectively, to show NATO that their, say, any thoughts or attempts … to invade will be immediately repelled and harshly repelled.»
According to the political scientist, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov is right when he said on August 12 that we need to change tactics. «We need to remember the idea we had — the creation of a sanitary zone. Now, when we are engaged in pushing back Ukrainian troops, I think that on that side, on the Ukrainian side, about 20 kilometers should be turned into an unplowed field. That is, to destroy the roads, to destroy the road infrastructure so that the Ukrainian troops have nowhere to retreat to.»
According to the expert, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are switching to the tactics of the Makhnovists during the Civil War, «that is, attacks and retreats.» In this case, we need to look for new tactical methods: «Use everything possible to destroy. I would not talk about «displacing», but about destruction. So that it serves as an example for possible thoughts of Westerners, to invade somewhere else.»