In 2016, Kremlin leader V. Putin stated that «Russia’s borders do not end anywhere.» Russian propaganda bravely picked up on this absurd thesis and began to really blur its own borders: mental, linguistic, and legal.
On August 5, 2024, the Ukrainian army proved that Russia no longer has physical borders.
Quite unexpectedly, both for the local population and the Russian army (which calls into question the professionalism of Russian intelligence), the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to advance 25 kilometers into Russian territory quite quickly, without encountering much resistance. The loss of control over the strategic object of the gas supply system to Europe in the town of Sudzha is painful and humiliating for the Kremlin elite and Putin personally.
At the same time, residents of the Kursk region, which is currently partially under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, are indignantly asking where their glorious and valiant army is, which should be primarily defending their own border. The answer is obvious — Putin has driven all combat-ready units equipped with heavy equipment into the territory of Ukraine, where they have been destroying cities with massive bombardments, killing civilians, robbing, raping, and abducting Ukrainian children for 2.5 years. The permanent president, who has been leading the Russian Federation for 25 years, has forgotten about the boomerang principle and is now desperately trying to extinguish the hot embers of war, but on his own territory. The propaganda in every possible way downplays the consequences of the successful invasion of the Russian territory by the Ukrainian army, which is why it calls the natural invasion a counterterrorist operation (CTO). Having lost confidence in the army generals who slept through the Ukrainian offensive, Putin handed over command of the troops to the FSB. Thus, he increased competition and distrust between the security agencies.
The Russian authorities, headed by Human Rights Ombudsman T. Moskalkova, also hastily appealed to the UN, where they complained about Ukraine’s «terrorist activities» and demanded to «condemn terrorism,» forgetting that at the same time the Russian army continues to be the occupier of Ukrainian land, terrorizing peaceful cities with missile and drone attacks.
The cynicism and crazy statements of Russian representatives resemble a theater of the absurd, where the occupying country, the aggressor country, demands sympathy and recalls international law and order. We are witnessing the debunking of the myth that Russia’s borders are irrelevant, as the Russian authorities opened Pandora’s box long ago with their aggression against Moldova, Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine.
But it seems that it was Ukraine, with the consent of its partners, that decided to punish the aggressor and discourage it from attacking its neighbors.
The Russian Federation, led by Putin, was so desperate to possess Ukraine that Ukraine came, came armed to the territory of Russia to regain its own, to restore its own international borders and to show Putin where Russia’s borders end.
So what will happen next…