Analysts of the Institute for the Study of War believe that the ruler of russia, vladimir putin, is deliberately exaggerating the statistics of losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk Oblast in order to justify the inability of his military forces to retake the region.
In their report, the analysts note that putin is exaggerating russia's progress in the Kursk Oblast, probably trying to reassure the domestic audience of the ability of the russian military to "suppress" Ukraine's invasion of the russian region.
Experts recalled putin's statement to the russian mass media about the supposedly "blocked" 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the region. However, as noted in the ISW report, the russian Ministry of Defense did not publicly report on the allegedly successful "infiltration of Russian troops into some Ukrainian positions in the Kursk Oblast."
The kremlin leader also did not recognize that the Ukrainian front line in the Kursk Oblast extends from the Ukrainian-russian international border, and that Ukrainian troops can freely cross the border sections that are under Ukrainian control.
The report says that according to the estimates of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi, who refuted putin's words about the encirclement of the Ukrainian military, the losses of russian troops since August 8 in the Kursk Oblast amount to 17,819 people.
While ISW cannot independently verify Ukrainian estimates of russian casualties, russian and Ukrainian reports indicate that Ukrainian forces continue to operate in the Kursk Oblast.
"Putin's exaggerated statistics on Ukrainian losses are likely part of his attempt to explain away Russia’s inability to decisively repel the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast after nearly three months in the context of the likely imminent deployment of North Korean troops to combat in this area," analysts at the Institute for the Study of War noted.
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