Kyiv says Kursk incursion is used to pressure Moscow to join talks
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday that Ukraine’s recent surprise cross-border incursion into the Russian region of Kursk was necessary to convince Moscow to start “fair” peace talks.
“We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia,” Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process.”
Podolyak said that Ukraine had no intention of holding onto Russian territory and that it was only fighting a defensive war.
But he said there was a need to inflict tactical defeats on Russia to coerce them to start negotiating an end to the war.
The presence of Ukrainian troops within Russia may impact public opinion, Podolyak suggested, since for many in Russia the war had not been something that directly affected them.
