Ukraine says it has captured 92 Russian towns and villages in the Kursk region. According to Zelensky, the goal of the offensive is to increase the pressure on Russia regarding peace negotiations and also create a buffer zone. The Kremlin has stated that it is not willing to negotiate at the moment. Europe's media see Putin under pressure.
Putin potentially facing awkward questions
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The events in Kursk may also exacerbate Putin's domestic political problems, Portuguese Público points out:
“The biggest concern will be how the families of soldiers who are doing their compulsory military service for a year react. Putin has always guaranteed - even if he has not always honoured it - that these young men will not be involved in the invasion of Ukraine. However, many of the soldiers serving in the Kursk region are young conscripts, and the invasion raises doubts about the troops that the Kremlin will need to mobilise.”
Mobilisation would be catastrophic
Ukrainian 24tv.ua explains why Moscow has not yet resorted to forced mobilization despite a shortage of soldiers:
“Putin understands only too well the difference between a soldier who kills Ukrainians voluntarily and for pay and has factored in the risk of dying and someone who is being forced to fight. A soldier who is forced into war will surrender at the first opportunity. A prime example of this in the last few days is the Russian conscripts from the Kursk region. After a week of fighting almost 2,000 have already been taken prisoner! Imagine a forced mobilisation of 300,000 Russians. If ten percent of them were to surrender, what an exchange fund that would be, and what a disaster for the regime!”
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December, 20, 2024
Change is in the air
For Romanian Spotmedia, the lack of reaction from the Kremlin speaks volumes:
“Reports by Ukrainian and Western journalists inside Russia, Kyiv's armoured vehicles rolling unhindered across the border, and residents who feel more protected by the occupying forces than by the Kremlin military paint a picture that was hard to imagine two and a half years ago. ... Russia's obvious weakness is already having an impact on the political regime in Moscow, and the waves that Belarusian President Lukashenka is now making show that the situation is coming to a head. It's impossible to predict when a major shift will take place in Russia, but it's in the air and could happen at any moment.”
An attack on our country - so what?
Exiled Russian politician Leonid Gozman marvels in Novaya Gazeta Europe at the indifference with which Russians seem to be reacting to the situation:
“Have you seen any posts saying 'Willing to take in a family from the Kursk region for free'? And where's the flood of volunteers eager to defend their homeland? The only indication that their number has increased has come from Putin - a reliable source indeed. The television stations haven't been able to show a single queue at an enlistment centre with someone saying that although they had thought that the country could manage without them, now they're off to the front. If you don't have at least that, you don't have a country. The authorities may have their own reasons for not declaring a 'holy war' over Kursk. But the main point is that people don't feel anything about it at all.”
Reprinted from www.eurotopics.net.
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