NYT: “Moscow forced to review plans after the attacks in Belgorod”
Attacks in Russia’s Belgorod region by Russian militants fighting alongside Ukraine could force Moscow to deploy more forces along the border instead of on the front lines where Kiev’s big counter-offensive is expected, Andriy says Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister, now a consultant to the Kiev government, as reported by the New York Times. Because of this, Zagorodnyuk calls the operations in Belgorod a “milestone” of the war. “Russians will see that there are problems among their own citizens, so the idea of a unified Russia will be seriously damaged,” he adds. The political leader of Russia’s Freedom Legion militants, former MP Ilya Ponomarev, agrees with Zagorodnyuk: “We think now they need to reconsider the situation and deploy more forces along the Ukrainian border,” Ponomarev said in an interview with New York Times, adding that the group captured about ten Russian border guards. “The Ukrainians are trying to push the Russians in different directions to open the gates,” said Royal United Services Institute analyst Neil Melvin in an analysis of the situation published on the Reuters news agency website. forced to send reinforcements”.