US sees inability of russian army to knock Ukrainian army out of Kursk Oblast before spring - media
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost about half of the territory they took under control in the Kursk Oblast in August, but may hold the remaining part until spring.
It was reported to Bloomberg by American officials who are monitoring the situation.
According to them, the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from the Kursk Oblast will occur due to a lack of personnel and uncertainty about the supply of weapons from the United States. At the same time, the interlocutors of the publication do not rule out that at some point the Ukrainian army will be forced to retreat in order not to be surrounded by the russian army, which operates together with 12,000 North Korean soldiers.
After withdrawing from the Kursk Oblast, Ukraine will lose one of the leverages of influence in the ceasefire negotiations with russia, Bloomberg sources add. However, according to them, the Ukrainian troops managed to hold out on russian territory longer than initially expected. This was facilitated, in particular, by Kyiv's permission to strike with long-range American weapons on russian territory.
One of the agency's interlocutors emphasized that Ukraine's initial intention was to shock with its invasion of the Kursk Oblast and stretch russian forces, so the retreat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can still be imagined as a tactical success. Two more officials expressed hope that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would give the order to retreat from Kursk in time to avoid heavy losses.
Earlier, russian president vladimir putin said that the russian army was trying to "knock out" the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Kursk Oblast, but no one had set a specific time frame for the operation for the military. He explained this by saying that if he said "a day or two," the soldiers would go there no matter what, they wouldn't count on losses.
Before that, putin had publicly demanded three times from the military to throw the enemy out of the Kursk Oblast. The last time he did this was on December 16 at an expanded board of the Ministry of Defense, once again reminding that this is the sacred duty of the armed forces. At the same time, back in November, putin promised a quick clearance of the territory from the enemy. However, since then, the russian army has not managed to fulfill this task
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a military operation in the Kursk Oblast of the russian federation on August 6 and seized about 1,300 sq. km in the first weeks. According to the OSINT project DeepState, as of mid-December, 496 sq. km remained under the control of the Armed Forces. The kremlin stated that they would not hold negotiations with Ukraine until the Kursk Oblast is liberated from the Ukrainian army.