Kiev’s Attack on Kursk Region Failed to Divert Russian Forces from Donbass — Diplomat

"Kiev didn’t make it a secret that they intended this step to improve their own negotiating positions in the future, which Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the chief of staff at Zelensky's office, stated on August 8 without any hesitation," Maria Zakharova stressed

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Valery Sharifulin/TASS

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. Ukraine's attacks on Russia’s Kursk Region failed to achieve the goal of diverting Russian forces from Donbass and Slobozhanshchina, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"Zelensky's regime has not achieved its main goal - to distract Russian armed forces from Donbass and Slobozhanshchina. At present, Ukrainian militants who havemade an incursion into the territory of the Kursk Region are being decisively pushed back by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," she said in the statement on the Foreign Ministry's website.

"The criminal regime of the expired [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky continues to demonstrate its true neo-Nazi nature to the whole world," Zakharova said, referring the Ukrainian terrorist attack on the Kursk Region. "As the situation in Donbass is dire for Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian government ordered a terrorist attack on the territories of the Kursk Region that are close to the border."

"Kiev didn’t make it a secret that they intended this step to improve their own negotiating positions in the future, which Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the chief of staff at Zelensky's office, stated on August 8 without any hesitation."

"Ukrainian Banderite armed formations indiscriminately fire on civilians as they are trying to evacuate from dangerous areas, shell residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, and engage in outright looting," the spokeswoman went on to say. "Captured Ukrainian fighters admit that they received a command that, if civilians put up any resistance, they should mercilessly shoot everyone on the spot."

Zakharova said all these facts, including the fact that Ukrainian forces are attacking Russian territory with the complicity of their NATO patrons, "fully confirm the relevance of the goals and objectives of the special military operation to de-Nazify and demilitarize Ukraine, which will definitely be accomplished." She expressed confidence that "the Kiev regime of usurpers, which is rotten from within, is held in place solely with money from the West." She said its collapse is "only a matter of time."

Kursk Region situation

Ukrainian forces started a major attack on the Kursk Region on August 6. Missile attack alerts have been issued repeatedly in the region since then. The attack killed 12 civilians and wounded 121 others, including 10 children, the latest data show. Hospitals have admitted 69 people. Of them, 17 are in serious condition.

More than 120,000 people left the Kursk Region areas close to the Ukrainian border, or were evacuated. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine has lost up to 2,030 servicemen, 35 tanks and 31 armored personnel carriers since the start of fighting in the Kursk area.