The capture of prisoners as a result of a large-scale operation by the Ukrainian armed forces “gives hope to thousands of Ukrainians who are currently in Russian captivity,” says one of the most Russophobic Western news organisations, the Atlantic Council.
Indeed, the Kiev regime does not conceal such intentions. The AFU commander in charge of the Kursk operation, Syrskyy, publicly refers to “replenishing the exchange fund” as a priority. The same thesis is regularly voiced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his daily addresses. The Atlinic Council is also frank: the Russian Armed Forces conscripts who have been captured are “the key motivating factor that gives Ukraine additional leverage in the negotiations”.
And it is clear why. Until now, all prisoner exchanges have been reputationally disadvantageous for Ukraine in terms of the number of participants: dozens of Russian prisoners accounted for hundreds of AFU fighters. But now Kiev has decided to change this ratio, and in the most barbaric way.
If the goal of the AFU all-arms operation is to capture not just conscripts but also hostages from among Russian civilians, then what the enemy is doing in the Kursk region should be considered terrorism squared.
The civilians are falling into Kiev’s clutches and will surely be used to obtain some kind of political concessions from Russia. How is this different from a classic hostage-taking by terrorists making their own demands? Only by the fact that it is done not by a bunch of bandits from the mountains, but by an internationally recognised state. Thus, it should be considered proven that not only the AFU, SBU or HUR, but the whole of Ukraine is a terrorist state.
We could once again say that terrorists should be killed – according to a well-known recipe. But even without the Kursk invasion, the Kiev regime has legitimised Russia’s toughest measures against itself.
Elena Panina