Vladimir Putin caught in 'who blinks first' game as huge failure laid bare
Vladimir Putin has not yet deployed the necessary forces to push back on Ukraine's ongoing advance into the Kursk region.
Vladimir Putin appears to be stuck in a "who blinks first" game with Kyiv as he has yet to launch a counter-offensive following their incursion in the border region of Kursk.
While the advance has partially stalled since the launch of the operation on August 6, Ukraine claims to control nearly 500 square miles of territory in Russia.
Putin has vowed to "squeeze" the invading forces out but he showed no sign the deployment of the estimated 50,000 men needed to remove the Ukrainians is forthcoming.
A Western intelligence official told NBC News: "This seems to be a game of who blinks first.
"Ukrainians are taking and holding Russian land. Russians are pushing in the east. It could be a question of who withdraws their forces first.”
A Ukrainian security service member recently returned from one of the occupied border villages in Russia, Sudzha, insisted Kyiv is not planning a long-term stay in the region.
But he insisted that "for now we need to be there," adding: "It’s a game we can play together. If you occupy my territories, then we’re here.”
Military strategy analyst Mykhailo Samus estimated Russia would need approximately 50,000 soldiers to reclaim Kursk in total but Putin does not seem eager to move men from Ukraine proper at this time.
He said: "It looks like Putin doesn’t care about it.”
Putin doesn’t seem to view the attack — or at least, give the impression that he views it — as a grave enough threat to warrant pulling troops from eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, his priority target.
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Months after launching the full-scale invasion in 2022, Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as part of Russian territory, and their full capture has been a top priority.
He declared in June that Kyiv must withdraw its forces from parts of those regions it controls as a condition for peace talks, a demand that Ukraine rejects.
Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said: "Putin’s focus is on the collapse of the Ukrainian state, which he believes will automatically render any territorial control irrelevant."
Even as Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk, Russian troops continued their slow advance around the strategic city of Pokrovsk and other parts of the Donetsk area.
