Ukraine's operation in Kursk region already has important foreign policy consequences - expert

Oleksandr Khara, a diplomat and foreign and security policy expert of the Center for Defense Strategies, said this in a commentary to Ukrinform.

He noted that peace talks with Russia had no chance in 2022 or 2024, as Putin has clear genocidal goals in Ukraine, and genocide can be stopped only with weapons and resistance, rather than diplomacy.

At the same time, Khara noted that security experts even from countries friendly to Ukraine, commenting on the gradual advance of Russian troops in Ukraine, believed that Ukrainians were not capable of any serious actions to win the war.

"After the start of the Kursk operation, it is absolutely obvious that we have such capabilities, that our people are motivated, that this operation, no matter how it ends from a military point of view, has important foreign policy consequences. We have shown that it is not a dead end, that we can beat the Russians and fight asymmetrically, not just in the trenches," the expert said.

He also suggested that the Kursk operation had torpedoed the so-called peace process.

"I am happy about this, because, as we can see, Russia has no desire for peace. They want a peace that means our capitulation and destruction of the Ukrainian state... Our actions in the Kursk direction actually call into question the diplomacy that is not in our favor," Khara said.

The expert predicted that the topic of diplomatic settlement would return to the agenda after some time, because it is part of the European political culture -- to seek compromises and solve problems diplomatically, not militarily.

"And in any case, we have not solved the problem of the misconception that some agreement can be reached with Russia... Whether our partners change their position and forget about diplomacy altogether and simply help Ukraine will probably depend on the results of what is happening in the Kursk region," the expert concluded.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi confirmed on August 12 that Ukrainian forces were conducting an offensive operation in the Kursk Region.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on August 13 that 74 settlements of the Kursk region were under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said that the purpose of the operation in the Kursk region was not to seize foreign territories, but to preserve the lives of citizens and protect Ukrainian territory from Russian attacks.

U.S. President Joe Biden said that Ukraine's sudden offensive in Russia's Kursk region "is creating a real dilemma" for Putin and added that Washington was in constant contact with Kyiv.