Former US ambassador: Ukraine has crossed Russia's 'red line'

According to RIA Novosti on August 13, former US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan believed in an interview with the New York Times that Ukraine had crossed the "red line" when attacking the territory of the Kursk region, but Russian President Vladimir Putin would act as decisively as possible to push the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of Russian soil.

“It could be. The Russians could see that the United States was involved in what they call a serious provocation or terrorism, and that this is a kind of red line that the Ukrainians have crossed,” said former ambassador Sullivan, answering a question about whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces had drawn a Russian red line.

Former Ambassador Sullivan also added that he hopes President Putin will react “as decisively as possible” to expel the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Russian territory.

Meanwhile, according to a statement by US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel, the US is privately discussing with Ukraine the possibility of using long-range ATACMS missiles to attack Russian military bases.

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said that units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces numbering in the thousands launched an attack at 5:30 a.m. on August 6 with the aim of capturing territory in the Kursk region. Their advance was stopped.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on August 12 that the Ukrainian army had lost more than 1,600 servicemen, 32 tanks and 23 armored vehicles in the entire fighting in the Kursk direction.