The prime ministers of Finland and Estonia have voiced their support for the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk Region, after the EU foreign policy head and US President Joe Biden did so.
Kiev sent several thousand troops across the Russian border last week. They have seized a dozen or so villages and indiscriminately targeted civilians, according to Moscow.
“Ukraine has the right to self-defense and it’s clear that they can do their operation in Kursk,” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters in Helsinki on Wednesday, at the joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart Kristen Michal.
“We fully support Ukraine in its different operations and personally I wish them luck,” Michal said.
Earlier in the day, Polish PM Donald Tusk said that Kiev has “every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyze Russia in its aggressive intentions as effectively as possible.” He also claimed that Russian actions have “the hallmarks of genocide.”
Most Western leaders declined to comment on Ukraine’s assault as late as Monday, choosing instead to make general statements endorsing “self defense” on part of Kiev. They also claimed to lack any knowledge of the Ukrainian offensive in advance.
On Tuesday, however, the US president suggested that Washington had been in touch with Kiev throughout.
“I have spoken with my staff on a regular basis, probably every four or five hours for the last six or eight days,” Biden told reporters in New Orleans. “And we’ve been in direct contact, constant contact with the Ukrainians.”
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell said that Kiev had the bloc’s “full support” for the Kursk offensive.
Ukrainian troops interviewed by Western outlets have admitted that the incursion’s primary objective was to capture some territory that could be traded with Moscow in eventual peace talks, while relieving pressure on Pokrovsk, Chasov Yar and New York in the Donbass.
However, the attack appears to have weakened Ukrainian positions in Donetsk People’s Republic, as Russian troops began to advance more swiftly. The Kursk incursion also resulted in an increase in Russian enlistments, according to President Vladimir Putin.
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