Ukraine’s wonderful incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is “humiliating” for President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin critic Bill Browder said.
Browder, an Anglo-American financier who describes himself as Putin’s “enemy number one,” made the remarks in an interview with Times Radio, broadcast Thursday. He spoke on the third day of the Ukrainian armored attack that stunned Russia and allowed Kyiv’s forces to seize at least 166 square miles (430 square kilometers) of Russian territory.
In about 24 hours, Ukrainian forces defeated two lines of primary fortifications in the Kursk region, the construction of which took Russia more than two and a half years and more than $170 million, according to the Russian Agentstvo investigation.
Russia has declared a federal state of emergency in Kursk and is now trying to deploy more resources to the region, diverting manpower from the war in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday released videos showing the transfer of Russian army aircraft to the Sudjansky district of Kursk, which is now believed to be occupied through Ukraine.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
“I think this is a dramatic progression and anything that, whether symbolically or militarily, has massive implications. Symbolically, it gives the impression that Putin is weak,” said Browder, chief executive and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment adviser to the Hermitage Fund, which was once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia.
Browder noted that Putin introduced his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” and prosecuting others who deviated from the Kremlin’s narrative of the conflict.
“The purpose of calling it that was to give the impression that it is something very distant. . . that the Russian people do not know,” he said. And suddenly, part of Russia was annexed through Ukraine – and maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself – but the symbolism [of Ukraine’s advance on Kursk] is excessive. Because how does Putin characterize this?
“This is the war that he started and that has now torn apart part of Russia. And depending on how this plays out, how long [Ukraine] will have to hold on to territory, whether it will get more territory, it’s even more humiliating. ” for Putin,” Navigator said.
On Thursday, Ukrainian forces reportedly controlled almost the city of Sudzha, a fuel transportation hub that facilitates the delivery of Russian fuel to Europe. The acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said that “the scenario remains difficult”.
“Ukraine is an underdog in general, it’s a very effective underdog,” Browder said.
“They used the limited equipment they had to the maximum to harm Russia and Putin. Everyone thought that this war would be over in three days, and now we have been two and a half years and Russia is suffering,” he added.
Putin on Wednesday called Ukraine’s cross-border armored attacks a “large-scale provocation,” while the Russian Defense Ministry sought to downplay the scale of Ukrainian advances, signaling a “victory” amid the incursion at least six times, according to Agentstvo.
The ministry also claimed responsibility for the “destruction of 945 Ukrainian vehicles and 102 armored vehicles” in Kursk since Tuesday, prompting negative reactions from war observers.
“Meanwhile, [Russian army leader Valery] Gerasimov said the other day that the organization of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that crossed the border numbered only 1,000 people. So, have they all been killed yet? So who controls the occupied territory in Kursk?”Asked Dmitri, an X (formerly Twitter) user of War Translated, an independent task that translates documents about the war.
Russian Gen. Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces unit fighting in Russia, broke the Kremlin’s line on Thursday by discussing Kursk’s incursion into Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces captured the Russian settlements in Kursk because Moscow “did not have the forces, means or resources” to prevent them, said Alaudinov, a Putin ally.
In a rare confession, Alaudinov also showed the deaths of Russian infantrymen during the offensive. Moscow rarely comments on its war losses.
“There is no irreversible process, nothing supernatural has happened. . . Yes, the boys are dead, it is true. In several populated areas, the enemy has entered them,” he said.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek journalist based in Kuala Lumpur. She focuses on the war between Russia and Ukraine. Isabel joined Newsweek in 2021 and in the past she has worked with media outlets such as Daily Express, The Times, Harper’s BAZAAR and Grazia. She has an MA in News Journalism from the City of London, University of London and a BA in Journalism in Russian from Queen Mary, University of London. Languages: English, Russian
You can contact Isabel by emailing i. vanbrugen@newsweek. com or by following her on X @isabelvanbrugen
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