MOSCOW: An influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the West and the U.S.-led Nato alliance had helped to plan Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region, something Washington has denied.
The lightning incursion, the biggest into Russia by a foreign power since World War Two, unfurled on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Russian military.
Ukraine said the incursion was needed to force Russia, which sent its forces into Ukraine in 2022, to start "fair" peace talks. But the United States and Western powers said Ukraine had not given advance notice and that Washington was not involved, though weaponry provided by Britain and the U.S. is reported to have been used on Russian soil.
Influential veteran Kremlin hawk Nikolai Patrushev dismissed the Western assertions in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper. "The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of Nato and Western special services," he was quoted as saying, without offering evidence. "Without their participation and direct support, Kyiv would not have ventured into Russian territory."
The remarks implied that Ukraine's first acknowledged foray into sovereign Russian territory carried a high risk of escalation. Meanwhile, at least two people were killed and more injured on Friday after Ukrainian shelling hit a shopping centre in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Russian state news agencies cited local authorities as saying. "Preliminarily there is information about at least two dead", the TASS news agency cited local operational services as saying, adding that the death toll could rise. The RIA news agency published video of huge clouds of smoke rising from what it said was the "Galaktika" shopping centre.
While the Ukrainian attack has revealed weaknesses in Russian defences and changed the public narrative of the conflict, Russian officials said Ukraine's "terrorist invasion" would not change the course of the war.
Russia has been advancing for most of the year in the key eastern sector of the 1,000-km front and has vast numerical superiority. It controls 18% of Ukraine. After more than 10 days of fighting, Ukraine holds at least 450 sq km of territory, or less than 0.003% of Russia. But for Putin, the incursion crosses another red line.
One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Ukraine started taking Russian villages and other non-military targets using U.S. weapons and vehicles, it could be seen as stretching the limits Washington has imposed, precisely to avoid any perception of a direct Nato-Russia conflict.
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