Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, appears to have ignored intelligence warnings that Ukraine's Armed Forces were gathering near the border of Kursk Oblast, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 8, citing a source close to the Kremlin.
Ukrainian forces crossed the border into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, resulting in clashes on Russian soil.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed on Aug. 8 that its forces were fighting Ukrainian troops in two districts near the border with Ukraine.
Gerasimov and top officials "seemingly dismissed intelligence warnings that Ukrainian soldiers were gathering near the border with Russia’s western Kursk region as much as two weeks before they began the assault," Bloomberg said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was also not briefed on the troop buildup, the unnamed source reportedly told Bloomberg.
The source indicated that "while Gerasimov is unlikely to be removed in the short term, patience in the Kremlin over his handling of the war is running out," Bloomberg added.
Putin held a meeting with Gerasimov and other top officials on Aug. 7, during which Gerasimov told Putin that Ukraine's "advance in the Kursk direction was halted."
Putin described the incursion as a "large-scale provocation" and claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the Russian government's claims.
Kursk Oblast lies on the border with Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, which has been experiencing daily attacks since Ukraine pushed Russian troops out of the region and back across the border in April 2022. The two regions share a 245-kilometer (152-mile) border.
"Russia brought war to our land, and it should feel what it has done," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Aug. 8, which avoided a direct mention of the ongoing fighting in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
Francis Farrell
