Russian troops will be depleted and ‘weakened’ after ‘astonishing’ Kursk incursion | Michael Clarke

“Russia’s own forces on their side of the border, they’ve got 50,000 troops on that border, but most of them are concentrated at Vovchans’k, and they’re not very good.”

Ukraine’s surprise offensive will force Russia’s forces to “weaken themselves” on the other fronts to fight off the incursion into the Kursk region, which could give Ukraine the advantage going into winter, says Michael Clarke.

📻 Listen to Times Radio – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio

📍 Subscribe to our channel – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjDhFuGXlhx9Us0gq0VK2w?sub_confirmation=1

🗞 Subscribe to The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/subscribe/radio-3for3/

📲 Get the free Times Radio app https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio/how-to-listen-to-times-radio/app

31 comments
  1. DISAGREE… Russian Tropps aren't weakened. HOWEVER they will have to Divert S-Eastern Troops to Kursk maybe from Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk etc. THAT WILL WEAKEN RUSSIA THERE, HOWEVER …Is Ukraine Also Weakened by Deploying maybe ~ten Thousand Troops to Kursk??? "

  2. Who cares how Russia perceives it. They started it, now they have to live with it. They can’t attack a NATO country. Right now Russia is the 2nd best army in Russia, and certainly in Ukraine.

  3. Did I hear that correctly? The US are sending another Carrier Strike Group? So there will be 2 sitting off the coast? That's a lot of fire power….

  4. No, UA will be in RU until at least 05-Nov (US presidential election).

    Because this is primarily a political operation to de-stabilise VVP, the RU state, the RU Armed forces, the RU people and importantly, RU allies. These believe/cling to the faith that somehow RU is /could win. Thus, this invasion by the UA [!] is a huge international embarrassment. At the top-level it will challenge the beliefs of fellow autocrats especially Lukashenko in their own personal safety and grip on power. Not only can they face internal threats but now also external. Minsk, Pyongyang etc can be much less certain they would survive an [UA] invasion….

    The axis of evil is held together, in part, simply by success. RU's inability to foresee, deter and then defeat a UA invasion is a massive fail that even its immedaite crushing would not undo. The unaligned South is much less likely to be want to be seen to be a fellow-traveller with "losers". And obvs, this will have a detrimental imapct – again – on RU weapon exports. If indeed it has any excess capacity to export.

    Internationally for UA it is important to be seen to be an ongoing winner, especially if the ultimate victory is several years away. UA have this pressure and political obligation to achieve with the gifted weaponry. This is particularly important when a major US political party has lost its roots and historic hostility to RU by being led by an idiotic isolationist. IF UA can be seen to be "winning" ahead of the US elections it will lift the ruling party as having backed a winner. [This is not limited to D success; it would apply to any party that was governing whilst support UA]. UA is doing its bit for the governing Administration as supporters of UA. It would thus be poor political form to withdraw, be seen to be "losing" from RU before 05-Nov.

    Thereafter, who knows….At this stage.

  5. Not sure this debate should have been made public knowledge … For example "The Americans have sent F22s to Mildenhall" etc. etc. …
    There may be factions who are intent on war who were not aware of this fact, but now they are fully aware.
    During the 1940s "Beware, walls have ears" … in 2024 this applies to anything freely available on the internet.

  6. Calling this an "escalation" plays right into Putin's (Putler's) narratives. Good points by Prof. Clarke regarding this at 6:20. Ukraine was invaded and violated. Fighting back is not escalation.

  7. I don't think we think to hard about it. The strikes on the reinforcements show exactly what the plan was. Russia trying to get this back at all cost is exactly what they wanted and planned for. Salute those operating the eyes from space.

  8. This action in Kursk does have echoes of how the SOE operated during the WW2. Without any more knowledge than anybody else I wouldn't be surprised of this attack is 2 pronged and at this moment in time KIEV is waiting for the Russians to use their chess pieces in one direction and namely moving towards Kursk before KIEV starts the second action. Although you can speculate where that might be. This was extremely well planned and I would be surprised if the Russians will be able to anything very effect knowing that they are operating on their own territory and all the citizens are theirs. Throwing conscripts and foreign mercenaries into the meat grinder is one thing but trying to operate in open territory against elite soldiers and most important of all vastly superior satellite information and intelligence. The Russians may think that they can throw at it whatever it takes but that just might not be enough.

  9. Mention Western weapons being used against Russia and having repercussions, Russia has been supplying weapons to our enemies for quite some time, and those weapons are and have been used against our military

  10. Dude. Just quite throwing that "escalation" scare word out. Russia isn't going to trigger the West. The West would STEP ON HIM and then he'd have to decide if he was willing to bring a nuclear war onto the world (which he would lose right along with the rest of us). There is NO WIN WHATSOEVER for Russia in having NATO become "really involved" in this. Putin is not going to go there, so let's just quite fretting over it and get on with the business of bringing him his just desserts as the monster that he is.

  11. Ukraine using western weapons.
    Why is that an issue.
    ruZZia uses North Korean, Chinese and Iranian weapons.
    .
    Stop ☝️ the Bull💩
    The news media needs to call this out.
    Quit giving it precedence.

Leave a Reply