Putin would ignore Zelenskyy's Victory Plan if not for one 'but' - politician Feygin

He said this in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on Espreso TV.

“I'll tell you this, Putin would not have paid attention to Zelenskyy's Victory Plan and its discussion at all if it were not for one thing - the Kursk region. If it concerned the front line, assistance to Ukraine, and even strikes on Russian territory, but still without a foothold in Russia, Putin would have treated it leniently, as he treated the Peace Formula before the August events, before the start of the Armed Forces operation. He would have been dismissive, with a kind of ultimatum, insolent tone, and proposed three conditions that needed to be met for these negotiations to begin. And now we are talking about two districts in the Kursk region, almost 1,000 square kilometers, where battles are currently underway with attempts to push the Ukrainian army beyond the state border,” said Mark Feygin.

According to him, on the eve of the Peace Summit in Lucerne, Putin stated three conditions: to liberate four regions within the administrative borders, i.e. to withdraw units of the Armed Forces from there, to lift all sanctions, and to commit to Ukraine's non-aligned status from the very beginning, from the start of the negotiations.

“Ukraine outside of NATO and Ukraine in NATO are two different Ukraine's. And everyone is well aware of this.  And then there is the Kursk region. And how can he continue to behave in such a brazen manner, given that you don't know how long the troops will stay there, what the losses will be, whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces will advance further, and what if they also enter the Bryansk region. For two months now, foreign troops have been on the territory of the Russian Federation, occupying administrative centers. And this is definitely an exciting, irritating factor that affects Putin's decision-making. In a sense, he has become more cautious, much more cautious in his public statements, if we are not talking about nuclear blackmail,” the politician commented.

In his opinion, the Kursk region and the situation there is the biggest challenge to Putin in the two years of war.

“Talks that the war would spread to Russia itself have come true. If sooner or later there is a decision to strike deep into the territory of Russia, it is absolutely clear that these strikes could lead to a continuation of the operation, during which the Ukrainian Armed Forces will occupy new territories in Russia. Moving on to Kursk or Kurchatov or other large cities in the Kursk region. Of course, this is an irritating factor, and the Victory Plan has become not just a slogan, but a threat. Because if we are talking only about Ukraine, you are liberating your territory, but here you may suffer and the population of the European part of Russia may be the object of war,” Feigin summarized.

• Earlier it was reported that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) fighters probably lack training and equipment to respond to the Ukrainian army's offensive in the Kursk region.
• The Siversk troops grouping claims that the Russian military is shelling settlements in the Kursk region where there are no Ukrainian soldiers.