Gilbert Doctorow, the well-known Brussels-based, American analyst of Russian affairs, published an important article on his site Aug. 27, under the headline “For Russia, Recovering Kursk Is No Walk in the Rose Garden.” In it, he uses the statements made on The Great Game talk show by Frants Klintsevich, a leader of the Russian Union of Veterans of Afghanistan and a former Senator in the Federation Council, whom Doctorow characterizes as an “authoritative source,” to warn that the Kursk invasion could escalate quickly to a nuclear confrontation between Russia and NATO.
According to Doctorow, Klintsevich said the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk is actually quite serious, and is not a cake-walk for Russia. “Klintsevich’s commentary lays the foundation for a dramatic Russian escalation of the proxy war into a hot war threatening to become World War III. Why? Because the so-called Zelenskyy gambit in Kursk is fully enabled by the United States and its NATO allies, using skills, satellite and airborne reconnaissance, command and control resources in real time that are superior to anything the Russians possess. It also has Western including U.S. boots on the ground.… Kiev has now raised the number of its forces sent to Kursk from 12,000 to 20,000.”
Doctorow continued: “In short, the Zelenskyy gambit that is being enabled fully by the United States is not a PR stunt but a full-blown invasion intended to be the vanguard of what will be an air assault on Russia’s strategic assets far in the rear using JASSM, Storm Shadow and other long-range missiles launched from F-16s.