Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
'There are some feeble signs that the Russian army is having to withdraw its troops'
FRANCE 24 English
Follow
8/18/2024
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Well, yes, there are some feeble, I would caution against any optimistic and premature
00:09
conclusions and hopes, but there are some feeble signs that the Russian army is having
00:16
to withdraw some of its troops from that area, not from the Donbass, where the hottest spots
00:21
of this war are right now, but from Kharkiv, simply because Vladimir Putin lacks the sufficient
00:28
force to protect its long borders, including with Ukraine, and that's one of the actual
00:34
goals of this operation. We don't have a clear vision of its strategic goals as of yet, but
00:42
it's already demonstrated how Vladimir Putin's fixation with Ukraine has left his own borders,
00:48
Russia's borders, essentially unprotected and undefended.
00:53
As you say, it's difficult to know what the long-term goal is here, but do you think that
00:57
Ukraine can achieve anything with this incursion into Russia?
01:02
Our former commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said as early as two years ago that unless
01:08
Russians start to feel the brunt of this war at home, nothing will change. This is essentially
01:14
a breach of Vladimir Putin's contract with the Russians. You stay out of politics, we
01:19
provide you with good economy, we provide you with security. Yes, the population of
01:25
Russia has lost its agency, it doesn't decide much, but every such successive wave of mobilization
01:32
for Vladimir Putin, every such clear failure of security brings unhappiness to these chattering
01:44
masses. If Vladimir Putin is pushed to order another wave of mobilization to try to plug
01:52
these holes, I mean, mind you, these are conscripts, they're not paid, unlike these
01:56
other mercenaries. This will create a sense of injustice, this will create significant
02:01
risks for the ruling elite.
02:04
Yeah, because Moscow, it's insisting that everything is under control, Putin referring
02:08
vaguely to a situation in the border region. Is the Kremlin then succeeding in playing
02:14
down the significance of this offensive to the domestic audience in Russia?
02:19
Well, of course, even as tightly controlled as the media in Russia currently are, Vladimir
02:26
Putin cannot hide the true picture of what's happening in Kursk from his population. That's
02:31
why his state-controlled TV channels have actually had to comment somewhat about what's
02:39
happening, even though now they're apparently going into this mode of denial, nothing to
02:44
see here, move along, etc. But once again, we're talking about hundreds of young conscripts
02:51
who've already been taken prisoners. They all have families, they have circles of friends,
02:56
etc. This will obviously create a very unpleasant situation for Vladimir Putin, no matter how
03:01
hard he tries to hide this from his population.
03:05
Yeah, because he often seems slow to respond to moments of crisis. But what kind of response
03:10
do you think we're going to see from him in the longer term?
03:14
Well, I mean, obviously, he's going to try to kick the Ukrainians out, but that can come
03:18
at a very huge cost. Vladimir Putin has once again not given up on his obsession with controlling
03:23
at least the eastern part of Ukraine and completing the capture of the Donbass until at least
03:30
the end of the year. Meanwhile, he will continue putting screws on the media. We're already
03:37
seeing that Russia is in full earnest about trying to shut down fully YouTube in Russia.
03:44
So more of the same, more tightening of the screws. And we're seeing signs that his regime
03:49
is growing senile, increasingly autocratic and increasingly out of step.
03:55
And meanwhile, Peter, US media reports had been suggesting that the warring sides, they
04:00
were going to be holding indirect talks perhaps on a deal to halt strikes on energy infrastructure.
04:05
Those plans seemingly derailed by this counter offensive. But does this indicate that there
04:11
is some kind of shift underway in Ukrainian thinking about the war?
04:15
Well, yes, indeed, at least until Kursk, which this operation has been more successful than
04:21
anyone really thought that injected a new kind of, you know, level of optimism on the
04:30
part of both the army, the military, and people behind the front lines. Be that as
04:35
it may, yes, there is fatigue with this war. And there is a bit of a shifting popular attitude
04:41
about the possibility of potential negotiations. This idea of secret negotiations happening
04:48
somewhere in Qatar would have been anathema two years ago, a year ago. Now I think the
04:55
population is getting more amenable to the idea that, you know, sooner or later this
05:01
has to stop. And there may be some territorial concessions that have to be made, even though
05:08
once again, this has not yet received official sanction, any talk about territorial concessions.
05:16
It might be hard to say at this point, but do you think that the Ukrainians, that they've
05:20
gained any leverage for any future negotiations by beginning this incursion, by crossing into
05:27
Russian territory?
05:29
That is indeed one of the probably main calculations of this operation, Operation Kursk. There's
05:37
perfect symmetry in this. You have, you know, went on an offensive and, you know, captured
05:45
hundreds of square kilometers of Kharkiv, I'm talking about a few months ago. We have
05:50
done the same just across the border in Kursk. You want us to leave Kursk? You leave Kharkiv.
05:55
Maybe you leave Crimea. Once again, whether that will play out this way, I'm not sure.
06:01
Vladimir Putin is clearly not sending any signals that he would be ready for that sort
06:06
of trade-off. But if Ukrainians get entrenched in Kursk, if they show that it's going to
06:12
be very difficult to knock them out, Putin is going to have to make some hard choices.
Recommended
7:48
|
Up next
'This is going to be a tough slog for the Ukrainians'
FRANCE 24 English
6/12/2023
3:29
‘There’ll be nothing left’: Pokrovsk residents flee Russian advance
FRANCE 24 English
9/23/2024
14:51
'We are engaged in a brutal war that has to be ended as soon as possible'
FRANCE 24 English
10/6/2024
2:40
Ukraine civilians flee advancing Russian troops in east
FRANCE 24 English
8/22/2024
1:26
Russia holds Frenchman accused of gathering military information
FRANCE 24 English
6/7/2024
3:16
'There might not be a later': The Ukrainians refusing to give up passions amid war
FRANCE 24 English
1/4/2023
4:19
Ukrainian forces engaged against 50,000 troops in Russia's Kursk region, Zelensky says
FRANCE 24 English
11/12/2024
4:12
Civilians in Ukraine's Pokrovsk 'bearing the brunt of war with Russia'
FRANCE 24 English
9/23/2024
1:59
Ukrainian beekeeper refuses to abandon hives as Russian troops advance
FRANCE 24 English
8/22/2024
1:59
Ukrainian forces leave path of destruction in Kursk incursion
FRANCE 24 English
8/17/2024
1:51
'There are a number of hostages that have lost their lives'
FRANCE 24 English
1/27/2025
1:58
‘High time to leave’: Civilians flee Ukraine’s Pokrovsk as Russia advances
FRANCE 24 English
8/23/2024
1:48
Zelensky says hopes Ukraine peace summit will hasten 'just end' to war
FRANCE 24 English
6/8/2024
4:03
Sudan's RSF open to talks on immediate ceasefire with army
FRANCE 24 English
1/3/2024
2:18
Germans protest military aid, arm supplies to Ukraine
FRANCE 24 English
2/18/2025
3:58
Rebel forces claim Aleppo: ‘Preoccupied’ Russia and ‘weakened’ Iran offered ‘window of opportunity’
FRANCE 24 English
11/30/2024
1:45
Zelensky calls for stop to North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia
FRANCE 24 English
10/26/2024
9:34
'Very real' risk of ceasefire 'unravelling', expert says
FRANCE 24 English
2/1/2025
1:23
'They have targeted our civilian infrastructure'
FRANCE 24 English
6/20/2025
1:46
'The Ukrainian forces still hold over 800 square kilometers'
FRANCE 24 English
11/23/2024
1:55
War in Ukraine: Iran denies reports of missile transfer to Russia
FRANCE 24 English
9/10/2024
1:44
Putin warns West risks 'war' over Ukraine long-range missiles
FRANCE 24 English
9/13/2024
0:16
BFBF
Go Go Video
11/26/2020
0:22
thththth
Go Go Video
9/20/2020
0:19
GJGJGJ
Go Go Video
1/14/2019