An influential ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Western countries and the US-led NATO alliance had helped plan Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region, a claim denied by Washington.
The biggest invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II began on Aug. 6, when thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed Russia’s western border, dealing a major embarrassment to Putin’s military.
Ukraine said the incursion was necessary to force Russia to start “fair” peace talks, having sent its troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
But the United States and Western powers, keen to avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia, said Ukraine had not given advance notice and Washington was not involved, although there are reports weapons provided by Britain and the United States have been used on Russian soil.
Influential senior Kremlin hawk Nikolai Patrushev rejected Western claims in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.
He added, “The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services,” although he did not provide any evidence.
“Without their participation and direct support, Kiev would not have been able to enter Russian territory.”
The comments implied that Ukraine’s first entry into sovereign Russian territory posed a serious risk of escalating tensions.
Putin chaired a meeting of the Russian Security Council that included Patrushev and said discussions would focus on “new technological solutions” being used in what Russia calls its special military operations.
Kremlin says Ukraine will pay for US involvement
“Washington’s efforts have created all the necessary conditions for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and some of its territories,” Patrushev said.
Ukraine said on Thursday it had deployed a military commandant to territory it controlled, while Russia stepped up its attacks in Ukraine’s east.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had repelled Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk border region.
Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said Ukraine had destroyed a road bridge over the Seym River in the region’s Glushkovsky district.
State news agency TASS cited Russian security officials as saying this could hamper the evacuation of about 20,000 residents of the border district.
While the Ukrainian attack has exposed weaknesses in Russian security and changed the public narrative of the conflict, Russian officials have said the “terrorist invasion” of Ukraine will not change the course of the war.
Russia has been advancing in the key eastern sector of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border for most of this year and has vast numerical superiority. It controls 18 percent of Ukraine.
After more than 10 days of fighting, Ukraine has as little as 450 square kilometers (175 square miles) of territory, less than 0.003 percent of Russia’s territory. But for Putin, the incursion crosses another red line.
A Russian source told Reuters the incursion could encourage hardliners in Moscow who advocate a major war, but would not make the choice easy for Putin.
They have sought to portray Europe’s biggest war in seven decades as a limited “special military operation” that will not disrupt Russian life, and as a historic battle with the West, which despises Moscow’s interests and seeks to dismember Russia.
The United States, which has said it cannot allow Putin to win the Ukraine war, so far views the surprise invasion as a defensive move that justifies the use of American weapons, officials in Washington said.
But he also expressed concern about complications arising from Ukrainian troops advancing into enemy territory.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said if Ukraine began occupying Russian villages and other non-military targets using US weapons and vehicles, it would be seen as a violation of limits imposed by Washington, which aims to avoid any perception of a direct NATO-Russia conflict.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has published footage showing a Russian drone destroying a US-made Stryker armoured fighting vehicle in the Kursk region.
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