Quotes
Operations like the Kursk incursion right now and also, for example, the coup attempt by Prigozhin last year are examples that show that Russia is really difficult to control and that Putin's regime is not successful in controlling Russia, or at least doesn't have as much of a control as it's trying to portray to the world and to its own population,
One of the explanations of this operation by the Ukrainians is to gain leverage because elections in the US are coming,
said Joni Askola, a Finnish military analyst from Prague's Charles University In terms of logistics, this [opening a front in Crimea] could be quite complicated and it would require a lot of manpower, pontoons, and other costly material,
Russia could potentially mobilise 300,000 people more,
So, by taking land in Russian territory, they [the Ukrainians] keep control of this process, make it less likely that they would get forced into any negotiations,
While it is unlikely that they have used the recently delivered F16 to strike directly the bridges, we cannot rule out that the F16, armed with AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, might have been used to protect the operations of the MiG 29 of the Sukhoi 27 (from Russian interceptor aircraft),
In the short term, it would be very bad for Ukraine. In the long term, it could actually accelerate Putin's downfall in Russia,
Nobody can ask [for a rotational break] now. We were the reserves but now we are here [in Kursk Oblast]
Russian soldiers are still grinding their way through Ukrainian defences, capturing villages and towns and bringing Moscow closer to its stated goal of complete control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine
But it did not in any way help Ukrainian forces regain ground there because they don’t have reserves either,
The Kursk operation is doing for a peace deal more than 100 peace summits combined,
lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said in televised remarks on Sunday referring to the summit held in Switzerland in June In the Middle East, in Africa, Russia positions itself as a superpower. But how can it be a predictable partner if it can’t control its own territory,
We’re kicking a**. Within days, we seized more land than the [Russians] had occupied this year,
Dovzhenko told Al Jazeera with a smirk, showing an online map of the Kursk areas seized since August 6 on her smartphone On the front line, the morale boost is simply colossal, ... Which is unexpected to me because people are still fighting in Donbas and theoretically, their lives didn’t get any easier.”
Mykhailo Zhirokhov, a military analyst based in the northern city of Chernihiv, told Al Jazeera, adding Obviously, a political decision has been made to keep fighting for what is really important to Putin – Donbas,
Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera We have a very positive international reaction, but not decisive, because they’re still not letting us use their [advanced] arms” for strikes in Russia
People are … dumbfounded, the chief is a guest abroad,
a Moscow resident who requested anonymity told Al Jazeera, referring to Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan We’re expecting a nightmare,
a police officer in Pokrovsk told Al Jazeera The fact that there's been absolutely nothing and no hint of using a tactical nuclear missile as a result of Ukraine rolling Western tanks into Russia shows you that it's highly unlikely,
You get to Pokrovsk, and it looks to me that you probably cut the supply lines to a number of different armies,
said Matthew Ford, a war expert and lecturer in international relations at the UK's University of Sussex