Kursk region operation disrupts secret talks with Russia on partial ceasefire - media

The Washington Post reports this with reference to its own sources.

According to the report, negotiations on a partial ceasefire were to take place in Qatar. The Qataris themselves were supposed to act as mediators and meet separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations. However, these plans were disrupted by the operation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.

Journalists believe that the willingness to participate in the negotiations indicates a certain shift for both countries, at least in terms of a partial ceasefire. According to official sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, some participants in the talks hoped that they could lead to a more comprehensive agreement to end the war.

A diplomat briefed on the talks said Russian officials postponed their meeting after Ukraine's offensive in the Kursk region. The Moscow delegation characterized this as an “escalation”.

“Russia did not disrupt the talks, they said: give us time,” the diplomat said.

Ukraine’s cross-border incursion in Russia’s Kursk region

On August 6, the authorities of Russia's Kursk region stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly tried to break through the Russian border, but were pushed back. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that "the Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group retreated to its territory.”

On August 7, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin convened the Russian military leadership to discuss the situation in the Kursk region, which he called a "large-scale provocation." At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community to "strongly condemn the Kyiv regime's criminal attacks on Russian territory."

On August 10, President Zelenskyy called the operation in the Kursk region “pushing the war into the aggressor's territory.” At night of the same day, the authorities introduced a counterterrorism operation in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions of Russia.

On August 14, it became known that the Ukrainian military had formed a “sanitary (buffer) zone” for self-defense in the Kursk region of Russia. It is planned to open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, and if necessary, military commandant's offices will be established in the Russian region.

At a meeting with the president on August 15, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukraine had established the first military commandant's office in the Kursk region to provide humanitarian aid to local residents.

At the same time, Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, together with the military, is currently working on a possible route for a humanitarian corridor for civilians from Kursk to Sumy.

On August 15, The Independent reported that about 2,000 Russian servicemen were captured during an operation by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region.

On Friday, August 16, a bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district of Kursk region was destroyed.

Also on August 16, the Ukrainian military showed unique footage of the first hours of the Ukrainian Defense Forces' offensive in the Kursk region.