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Ukraine has invaded Russia’s Kursk region and has been holding territory there for a month.
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A retired general who co-led NATO said it shows what Ukraine can do without much Western advice.
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“Ukraine can win this war” if the West stops imposing restrictions, he said.
A former NATO commander said that Successful Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region shows what it can do without relying too much on Western advice.
Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Russia on August 6, a highly risky move that deviated from their previous strategy in the fight against The invasion of Russia.
According to Ukraine’s military chief, it had captured and controlled 1,300 square kilometers of Russian territory by last week.
General Philip M. Breedlove, a former NATO supreme commander in Europe, said the Kiev Post that he considered the operation in Ukraine a success.
He said the measure would have ramifications beyond the region and would pose major problems for Russian President Vladimir Putin as ordinary Russians would see their leaders and military differently.
It showed how Ukraine can achieve such major victories without too much interference from the West, he said.
He said the “invasion happened without much direction from the West, and look how well it worked.”
The attack on Kursk was apparently carried out to provide to Western partners without prior knowledge.
Breedlove, who is also a retired U.S. Air Force general, compared Ukraine’s success in Kursk to its major counteroffensive last year, where Ukraine was unable to take back large parts of its territory.
He said that with that counteroffensive the West and others are “imposing many restrictions on Ukraine.”
He said he believed Ukraine would have been more successful if it had been able to act as boldly as it had at Kursk.
“I think if Ukraine could have taken such an initiative last year, we would have had a different outcome.”
Western borders
Western countries have allocated billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine, but they also impose restrictions on their use, which has proven frustrating.
Ukraine was initially banned from using Western weapons against targets in Russia, allowing Russia to freely position its weapons just across the border. That restriction was relaxed in May.
But many allies, including the US, remain Ban Ukraine from using long-range weapons within Russia it limits Ukraine’s ability to hit key targets there.
Breedlove said he believes Western policymakers have limited Ukraine’s position because Putin has convinced them that if Ukraine wins, “it will have immense consequences.”
“Putin’s most successful weapon in this war is intimidation, or, in military terms, his ability to limit Western actions through his threats.”
Breedlove said: “I believe this war will end exactly the way Western policymakers want it to. Right now, Western policymakers cannot understand morally and intellectually what a Ukrainian victory would mean. Putin defeated, the Russian army defeated.”
He said Western restrictions on Ukraine needed to be adjusted: “If Ukraine can attack the Russian supply of equipment and personnel before they reach Ukraine, I think Ukraine can win this war.”
Breedlove said he believes it is too early to say for sure whether Kursk is “a major strategic success,” although he believes it is.
He said that with this invasion, Ukraine had “dictated the terms of the battle,” in stark contrast to much of the war, when the emphasis was on limiting Russia’s influence.
George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, told BI last month that it was not yet clear how the fast-moving operation would end. He did say it was positive for Ukraine after months of grueling war that left the country almost entirely on the defensive.
“It is no longer the Ukrainians who lie on their backs for more than nine months and just do their best to sort out the patients,” he said.
Read the original article at Company Insider
