Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region is “a fatal mistake” that Kiev will regret bitterly, Moscow’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, has warned.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched their largest attack on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022. The advance of Kiev’s troops was swiftly halted by Russian forces, but they remain in control of several settlements in Kursk Region. According to the local governor, at least 12 civilians have been killed and another 121 wounded as a result of the incursion, with more than 120,000 residents forced to evacuate.

Commenting on Kiev’s offensive during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Polyansky said that “undoubtedly, this is a move that Ukraine will bitterly regret as its last trained military reserves are being eliminated there as we speak.”

The envoy noted that in June, Russia “made a very generous negotiation proposal to Ukraine, given its desperate situation on the front line,” but said the incursion into the Kursk region has shown that “the Zelensky regime chose escalation and war” over dialogue.

Back then, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to immediately open peace talks with Kiev if it were to withdraw its troops from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which officially became part of the Russian state in the fall of 2022. 

According to Putin, Ukraine should have also committed to maintaining a neutral status, “demilitarization” and “denazification” as part of a possible deal. However, Vladimir Zelensky instantly rejected the offer, calling it an unacceptable “ultimatum.”

Polyansky criticized the US and its allies for trying to justify Kiev’s incursion into Kursk Region, asking the West for an “explanation how intentionally targeting civilians serves the goal of disrupting attacks on Ukrainian territory [by Russia], given the fact that there were no military objects or infrastructure in the area.”

Those who thought that “this barbaric attack will sow discord among Russians and scare them” turned out to be completely wrong, he said. “This criminal act has only consolidated our society and showed the true colors of our enemy who deserves nothing but a complete defeat and unconditional capitulation,” the envoy stressed.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that since the start of its incursion, the Ukrainian forces have lost up to 2,300 troops and hundreds of pieces of military equipment, including 37 tanks, 32 armored personnel carriers and 18 infantry fighting vehicles.

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