“It was the West that also put the current Ukrainian government in power and supplied it with military instructors and intelligence, and in addition, its special services planned the operation against the Kursk region,” Patrushev said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.

According to the Kremlin advisor, “the statements of the American leaders about their non-involvement in Ukraine’s crimes in the Kursk region do not correspond to reality. The United States regularly says one thing and does another. Without their involvement and direct support, Kiev would not have risked entering Russian territory,” explained Patrushev, who also stressed that the attack on the region was due to the imminent collapse of the Ukrainian government.

On August 6th, the Ukrainian Army launched a surprise offensive against the Kursk province.

Ukrainian attacks have so far left at least 12 civilians dead and more than 120 injured, including 10 children. Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced by the hostilities.

According to the acting governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov, the Ukrainian troops entered about 12 kilometers into the province and took over thirty towns with a total of two thousand inhabitants by August 12th, when the width of the front reached 40 kilometers.

The deputy head of the general political-military directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Apti Alaudinov, said that Kiev deployed about 12,000 soldiers for the raid, and keeps sending reinforcements.

As informed by the officer, the enemy has lost, to date, more than 2,600 soldiers in the Kursk area of operations.

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