While some NATO members have supported the Kiev regime’s attack on Russia’s Kursk region, others expressed "misgivings publicly and privately", unnamed Western officials told the Bloomberg news agency.
Those NATO allies who remain skeptical cited the risk that "the escalation in fighting could divert badly needed [Ukrainian] troops from a fragile front line, and potentially sow division among Kiev’s backers," the officials argued.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, for his part, called the Kursk attack an escalation that would push a ceasefire "further and further away."
The skeptics consider it unlikely that Ukraine will be able to hold Russian territory in the wake of the attack, according to the sources.
They added that the lack of clarity over the objectives of the attack remains a "dominant factor" in the matter. If Volodymyr Zelensky’s goal is to secure a bargaining chip in the possible negotiations, "the timing of the assault may not play to his advantage," one of the insiders claimed.
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby earlier told reporters that the US is in the dark about the purpose of Ukraine’s Kursk attack. He spoke as Russian Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev pointed out in an interview with the Izvestia daily that Ukraine’s Kursk aggression was planned with the participation of the US and NATO.
Last week saw Ukrainian troops’ incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, where they seized a number of settlements, according to the region’s Acting Governor Alexey Smirnov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine had carried out another large-scale provocation, firing indiscriminately at civilian targets. He stressed that the enemy will receive a proper response.