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The goals of these incursions into Russia seem pretty obvious to me - to embarrass the Putin regime, to force Russia to re-deploy troops to defend the border areas, and to demonstrate that the war can and will cross the border into Russia proper.
Russia had long assumed - probably correctly - that the site of Ukrainians charging into Russia would make their Western partners nervous. Kyiv has neatly sidestepped that by using Russian proxy forces instead of Ukrainians.
But regardless, the outcome will be the same - it'll force Russia to re-deploy troops that could have been more productively used in Ukraine to defend these border regions - in the same way Ukraine has had to station thousands of their own soldiers on the Belarusian border.
It also once again undermines one of Putin's main arguments about his "special military operation", that the war was meant to make Russia safer.
Before February 2022, there was never any direct conflict with Ukraine on Russian soil; now there is.
Before February 2022, there was never any direct conflict with Ukraine on Russian soil; now there is.
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