Ukraine's Kursk attack aims to scare Russians into peace

Top adviser to President Zelensky tells The Independent about shock tactics behind incursion - and its objective

- TOM WATLING, ASKOLD KRUSHELNYCKY

Ukraine's surprise attack inside Russia is the only way to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table as part of a "psychological" tactic to win the war, president Volodymyr Zelensky's chief adviser has told The Independent.

In its most successful move of the two-and-a-half-year conflict, Kyiv has captured more Russian land in the past seven days than Moscow has taken in Ukraine all year. Ukrainian forces have steadily advanced across the border into the Kursk region, taking over towns and villages and forcing hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians to flee their homes.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the top aide to the Ukrainian president, said the incursion had shown Russians the harsh realities of Mr Putin's war. "We need to use clear tools to coerce Russia [into negotiation]. One of them is a military instrument of coercion. That is, we need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia, in addition to economic and diplomatic tools. In the Kursk region, we are seeing the optimisation of this military tool of coercion to force Russia into the negotiation process."

Nearly 200,000 Russians in Kursk - and the neighbouring region of Belgorod, where a state of emergency has also been declared -have been forced to flee their homes and relocate to temporary shelters.

Ukrainian forces have also taken Russian soldiers as prisoners of war to use as bargaining chips for their own civilians previously taken by Mr Putin's troops. Pictures yesterday showed blindfolded personnel in Russian uniforms in the back of Ukrainian trucks, heading across the border.

One Ukrainian colonel told The Independent that as many as 2,000 Russian soldiers had been taken captive - a figure that could not be independently verified.