Ukraine's Kursk Attack 'Humiliating' for Putin, 'No.1 Enemy' Says

Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region has been "humiliating" for President Vladimir Putin, said Kremlin critic Bill Browder.

Browder, a British-American financier who describes himself as Putin's "No.1 Enemy," made the remarks in an interview with Times Radio, broadcast on Thursday. He spoke on day three of the Ukrainian armored assault that took Russia by surprise and has resulted in Kyiv's forces seizing control of at least 166 square miles (430 square kilometers) of Russian territory.

In roughly 24 hours, Ukraine's forces overwhelmed two major lines of fortifications in the Kursk region that took Russia over two-and-a-half years and more than $170 million to build, according to Russian investigative site Agentstvo.

Russia has declared a federal emergency in Kursk, and is now scrambling to deploy additional resources to the region, diverting manpower away from the war it started in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday published videos of Russian military equipment being moved toward Kursk's Sudzhansky district, which is reported to now be partially occupied by Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

"I think this is a dramatic development and something which both symbolically and militarily really has huge implications. Symbolically, this makes Putin look weak," said Browder, CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment adviser to the Hermitage Fund, which was once Russia's largest foreign portfolio investor.

Browder noted that Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a "special military operation' and prosecuting people who veered from the Kremlin's narrative of the conflict.

"The purpose of calling it that was to make it seem like it's something very far away…not affecting the Russian people," he said. "And all of a sudden, a piece of Russia has been annexed by Ukraine—and maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself—but the symbolism of [Ukraine's advances in Kursk] is extreme. Because how does Putin characterize this?"

"This is the war he started which has now bitten off a piece of Russia. And depending on how this plays out, how long [Ukraine] can hold the territory, can they get more territory, it's even more humiliating for Putin," said Browder.

Ukrainian forces on Thursday were reported to nearly be in full control of the city of Sudzha, a gas transmission hub that facilitates the flow of Russian gas to Europe. Acting Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov has said that "the situation remains difficult."

"Ukraine is a total underdog, but they're a very effective underdog," said Browder.

"They have used what limited tools they have to the maximum advantage to harm Russia and Putin. Everybody thought this war was going to be over in three days, and now we're two and a half years into it and Russia is suffering," he added.

Putin on Wednesday called Ukraine's cross-border armored assaults a "large-scale provocation," while Russia's Defense Ministry has sought to downplay the scale of Ukrainian advances, declaring a "victory" amid the incursion at least six times, according to Agentstvo.

The ministry has also claimed the "destruction of 945 Ukrainian military personnel and 102 armored vehicles" in Kursk since Tuesday, sparking backlash from observers of the war.

"Meanwhile, [Russian army chief Valery] Gerasimov stated the other day that the Ukrainian Armed Forces group that crossed the border amounted to just under 1,000 people. So, everyone has already been killed? Then who controls the occupied territory in Kursk?" asked X (formerly Twitter) user Dmitri, from War Translated, an independent project that translates materials about the war.

Top Russian General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces unit fighting in Russia, broke from the Kremlin line on Thursday when discussing Ukraine's Kursk incursion.

Ukrainian forces captured Russian settlements in Kursk because Moscow "had neither forces, nor means, nor resources" to stop them, said Alaudinov, an ally of Putin.

In a rare admission, Alaudinov also confirmed the deaths of Russian troops in the offensive. Moscow rarely comments on its war casualties.

"There is no irreversible process, nothing supernatural happened…Yes, the guys died, that's true. Several populated areas, the enemy entered there," he said.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.