Russia is withdrawing some of its troops from Ukraine in response to a Ukrainian counter-aggression into Russia that began last week, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.
Politico Europe also reported Tuesday that Kiev officials said the number of Russian troops withdrawn in response to the Kursk invasion was “relatively small.” A U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal it remains unclear how many troops Russia will withdraw from Ukraine.
The State Department and the White House did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Ukraine began a lightning invasion of Russia around August 6, sending troops into the Kursk region. Kiev said this week that Ukrainian forces had seized about 400 square miles of Russian territory over the course of several days, roughly the same amount of land that Russia has seized in Ukraine this year. Business Insider was unable to independently verify the amount of territory Ukraine has seized.
Ukraine has not said much about the incursion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on Monday that Russian artillery shells were being fired into Ukraine from the Kursk region, according to Politico Europe, and called the operation a “security issue.”
“It is only fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are, where they launch their attacks,” Zelenskiy said, adding that Ukraine could set up an “exchange fund” for prisoners of war.
Its ultimate objectives are unclear, but military analysts say Kiev could be trying to gain a negotiating advantage by straining Russian resources or to support its forces elsewhere, BI previously reported.
Ukraine may also have been trying to embarrass Russia: Though the Kremlin tried to downplay the attack, military analysts previously told BI’s Tom Porter that it was a dent in Putin’s image as an autocrat.
Putin even tried to pin the blame for the attack on the West, saying Russia’s “peaceful” people should not be invaded.
The U.S. response is simple, with White House national security communications adviser John Kirby saying on Monday: “There’s a simple solution: He just needs to get the hell out of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhy Tykh said the aim of the attack was “to save the lives of our citizens and protect Ukrainian territory from Russian aggression,” the paper reported.
“The sooner the Russian Federation agrees to the restoration of a just peace, the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian Defence Forces on the territory of the Russian Federation will stop,” he added.
