12.02.2025
The Russian authorities are seeking to silence Z-bloggers who write about
the situation in Kursk amid Ukraine’s statements about its intentions to exchange the controlled territory of this Russian region for occupied Ukrainian territories. In the Russian Federation, propagandists who write about Ukraine’s advancement may be accused of “discrediting the Russian army.”
This is stated in a new material from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The analysts also added that the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk has disrupted the plans of the Russian command to conduct an offensive operation to recapture Sudzha.
Amid increasing pressure on Russia regarding the upcoming exchange of the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kursk region for occupied Ukrainian lands, the Russian authorities are trying to silence “military correspondents” who talk about the current front line in this Russian region.
Thus, several Russian Z-bloggers who regularly criticize the way the Russian army is fighting against Ukraine have complained over the past two days that unnamed individuals are calling on the Russian authorities to charge them with discrediting the Russian military – after they spoke about the recent advance of Ukrainian troops southeast of Sudzha.
The propagandists also claimed that the Russian military command was persecuting them for publishing information about successful Ukrainian attacks near Cherkasska Konopelka and Fanaseevka, and one of them even stated that the recent Ukrainian attacks had forced the Russian military command to postpone plans for a future offensive operation in the area.
“The latest claim indicates that the Russian military command may have been planning an offensive operation to capture Sudzha, a known gas transit hub and the very city controlled by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region,” ISW suggested.
Analysts believe that the desire of the Russian military command to take control of reports about the situation in Kursk is related to the statements of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine plans to use control over part of the region as an argument in future peace negotiations.
In particular, the day before, in an interview with The Guardian, he stated that he intends to use Ukrainian-controlled territory in the Kursk region to secure the return of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia or “something else” in future peace talks.
Zelensky stressed that it is important for Ukraine to return all occupied territories, and did not specify which territory could be exchanged for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Kursk.
And it is precisely this kind of exchange that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seeks to avoid, because he does not want to give up what he has captured.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin probably intends to expel Ukraine from the Kursk region, or at least from Sudzha, before the start of peace negotiations in order to avoid exchanging occupied Ukrainian territory for Russian territory,” ISW summarized.
Recall that earlier, ISW explained how Ukraine and Russia are modernizing the use of drones and predicted how this will affect the battlefield.
Analysts also stated on February 10 that Ukrainian troops had advanced in Kursk and in the Vovchansk area.
Discrediting the russian military is easy when one sees how they bungle everything that is possible to bungle. But, typical of fascists, this doesn’t go down well with the potato generals and other cockroach officers that are responsible for the screw-ups.
The last thing I’d want is swap Donbas for Kursk.
I think that Zelensky knows there will be no swapping. He’s perhaps saying this to lather up the jellyfish.