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Written by Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant
Once again, Kiev makes clear its intention to continue carrying out terrorist attacks on the undisputed territory of the Russian Federation. In a recent interview, the head of Ukrainian intelligence stated that the conflict should be “extended” to “Russian territory”, thus showing that neo-Nazi forces plan to continue with incursions into Russia’s demilitarized zone, unnecessarily endangering the lives of innocent civilians.
The words were spoken by Kirill Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). During an interview with Ukrainian TV anchor Natalya Moseichuk, he stated that hostilities need to be extended to deep inside Russian territory, in addition to countries and regions where Russia “has influence”.
“The war must be extended to other territory – which for us is clearly Russia – and other areas where they have influence (…) The wider the operations are, the better”, he said.
For Budanov, the deepening of territorial incursions against Russia is an efficient strategy from the military point of view, since it would supposedly allow “paralyzing” Moscow’s forces, giving Kiev’s troops an advantage. In other words, in the face of heavy losses, Ukraine wants to gain time to reorganize itself and think about new combat tactics – and plans to do this by keeping the Russians busy trying to neutralize deep attacks.
It is also curious that Budanov mentions the possibility of attacks against areas where Russia “has influence”. In practice, he is admitting that Kiev plans to attack Russia’s allies, internationalizing the conflict. In this regard, it is necessary to remember that until now several sabotage operations have already been carried out by the Ukrainians against the territory of Belarus. Considering Budanov’s words, it is expected that new maneuvers of this type will happen in the near future.
A few days before Budanov’s interview, another Ukrainian intelligence officer had already made similar statements. In an interview to the New York Times on August 25, Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service, stated that “Russian elites and ordinary Russians now understand that war is not somewhere far away on the territory of Ukraine, which they hate” , adding that the “war is also in Moscow, it’s already on their territory.”
Commenting on Yusov’s words at the time, New York Times journalists stated that Kiev’s drone attacks against Russia have been working as a “morale booster”. They also said that, despite previous American disapproval of this type of maneuver, now “US officials conceded that attempted Ukrainian strikes had so far been calibrated, and they had not provoked any drastic escalation by Moscow.”
In fact, both Budanov’s and Yusov’s words directly contradict the statement by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky himself, who on August 27th showed a lack of interest in carrying out in-depth attacks, stating that such operations risk Kiev being “left alone”. Zelensky apparently thinks the attacks create an uncomfortable situation for the West, which, despite maintaining a proxy war, tries to avoid a direct conflict with Moscow.
So, once again Ukrainian internal disagreements become clear. Officials claim different things and expose strategies for the conflict that contradict each other. In practice, there are only two possibilities in this scenario: either Zelensky is acting propagandistically, and privately he authorizes attacks in depth, while publicly denying them. Or, on the other hand, the regime’s officials are acting in a totally decentralized way, with military and intelligence agents carrying out attacks without prior authorization from Zelensky.
Both scenarios seem plausible, but to analyze the case properly it is necessary to consider what the West says on the topic, as the Ukrainian state is not sovereign and acts only as a proxy for NATO. There have been several US pronouncements so far disallowing attacks on undisputed Russian territory, but according to the New York Times, the current trend among US officials is to recognize drone incursions as “calibrated” and with low risk of escalation.
So, it is possible that US officials coordinating Ukrainian military operations on the battlefield are authorizing these drone strikes, as well as other forms of territorial invasion of Russia, without any communication to Zelensky. With so much evidence that the Ukrainian president is now isolated, without Western support and on the verge of being replaced, his exclusion from the military decision-making process seems likely.
However, these attacks will not bring any military advantage to Kiev. Escalation possibilities exist and Moscow will certainly react incisively if it perceives enemy incursions as a significant threat. This has not happened so far because the Russian forces have been efficient in neutralizing or reducing the damage of most attacks, but, having military control of the conflict, the Russians could assume a more escalatory attitude at any time. If it is necessary to increase the frequency and intensity of attacks on Ukraine to prevent the conflict zone from expanding into its undisputed territory, Moscow will certainly do so.
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the more terorist ukroland becomes, the less reasons will have russia for being gentle, as they are now…. ukros, the stupidest animals on earth, thinking things could not be worse for them….
when kyiv is threatening to ‘go global’ are they aware russia knows where all the vips in kyiv are at any given moment. that most likely applies to belgium, the uk, france and germany as well, should they also support the kyiv nazis going even more terrorist than they already are?
ukraine reminds me of the last scene in the gladiator, when the fake emperor is fighting maximus and dies by his own dagger. that’s how stupid the ukrainians are.
the maximus of real life will never be stupid enough to enter the arena.
just make thumbs up/ thumbs down from afar.
so does syria to israeli and turkish terrirory then. and yemen to saudi territory.
but whatabout russia to nato territory since nato sends the weapons, picks the
targets that ukraine then attacks and perhaps even the person who presses the
button is a nato officer in ukrainian uniform.
just think about what you wish for before it might be too late.
brussels needs a ‘reason’ for an escalation, rather than it being about the imf never dropping all sanctions against russia and disbanding nato at the same time.
euthanasia is becoming big in europe.
do it! just do it! you guys have been losing in your own country, what better way to lose even more than in another country. just gotta be sure you are able to cross the border first. i highly doubt russia hasn’t fortified their borders along the entirety of ukraine. pretty sure you can expect some kalibrs and kinzhals in and around kiev
as soon as ukraine runs out of moles for the russians to play wack-a-mole with, then they’ll probably take out the leadership – if they haven’t slithered off to their mansions abroad first that is. until then, why should the russians end the war? it’s all going according to plan.
“wollt ihr den totalen krieg” j.göbbels
i wonder if brussels is aware they are #1 on the list of targets in an extended, as a partner in kyiv’s terrorist activities, as well as being the entity that finances terrorism in a global scale. does this also mean the ‘gru’ will be attacking iran now that ‘mossad’ was just recently ‘busted’ by making sure parts shipped to them were ‘defective’?