Apparently, some Ukrainian soldiers managed to advance to the Russian border. Some of them reportedly want to go further and invade the neighboring country. An empty threat – or is there more behind the announcement?
Ukrainian troops report a symbolic success in their counter-offensive in the eastern region around Kharkiv: they have at least advanced to the Russian border at one point.
At least that’s what a video that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense published on Monday night suggests. It shows a dozen soldiers standing next to a border post in the national colors of blue and yellow. According to the information, they belong to a volunteer brigade from the city of Kharkiv.
Another video clip posted online shows the soldiers bringing the stake and placing it in front of a ditch with Russian border signs. The Ukrainian military had already reported in the past few days that it was gradually succeeding in pushing back Russian troops near Kharkiv.
The testimony of a Ukrainian soldier stationed in nearby Ruska Lozova is noteworthy in this context. “I want to move on to Novosibirsk. The videos I’ve seen showing what they did leave me no choice,” he told Reuters. The city he is referring to is in Siberia – in the middle of Russia.
So do Ukrainian soldiers want to advance into Russian territory? Gerhard Mangott, Professor of International Relations at the University of Innsbruck, rates the mercenary’s statements as “overconfidence and sensationalism”. “It would be militarily impossible for Ukraine and politically undesirable,” he said in an interview with FOCUS Online.
Gustav Gressel, who works at the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR), is also critical of the soldier’s announcement. When asked, he explains that he considers the statement to be pure provocation. “Ukraine is rapidly gaining ground around Kharkiv, but also because many Russian troops have concentrated around Izium and Siverdonetsk and this section is exposed.”
Russia will “soon be so worn out that it will have to stop its offensive,” said Gressel. “But that doesn’t mean that Ukraine is strong enough to drive out the Russian occupiers.” Mangott meanwhile outlines what would happen if Ukrainian soldiers ventured into Siberia.
“They would be bombed and fought by the Russians in the open field,” he says. Incidentally, other statements from the Reuters text should also be viewed critically. “Putin wants to start a war with NATO,” another Ukrainian soldier told the news agency.
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Both experts strongly disagree. “Russia definitely doesn’t want a war with NATO,” emphasizes political scientist Mangott. And Gressel from ECFR says: “The fact that the soldiers believe that Moscow is looking for a war with NATO is probably due to Russian rhetoric, which claims that NATO is fighting in Ukraine, not the “brother people”.
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Putin cannot afford a war with NATO if at the same time his army is stuck in Ukraine. Both experts believe that a buffer zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border, which the soldiers in the Reuters article would like, makes sense but is difficult to implement.
“Ukraine had already wanted peacekeepers in the Donbass war, but it failed because of Moscow’s veto,” says Gressel.
