at 8: a.m. on August 6th Ukrainian troops crossed this border into the KK region inside Russia they swept into Russian towns and after facing Little Resistance from Russian troops kept going more than a week later they control more than 1,000 km of territory and have left Russia stunned this is a huge problem for Russia for the first time in more than 80 years foreign troops are fighting on Russian soil buildings destroyed allegedly by shelling people fleeing the region Vladimir Putin described the attack as a major provocation the main task is to force the enemy from
our territory already that will be lost on very few here Ukraine's attack is one of the boldest moves it's made since the start of the war but it's far from over this was a huge risk and I would say still is a huge risk so why did Ukraine attack inside Russia and was it a stroke of Genius or a dangerous mistake [Music] for most of 2024 Ukraine has had to play defense it's been using basically all the soldiers it has to prevent Russia from advancing past these front lines even then it was beginning to lose
ground here in the East and the fighting was costly Ukraine was losing men and those it had were exhausted meanwhile US presidential candidate Donald Trump has threatened to cut Aid to Ukraine if elected in November 2024 seemed like a bad year for Ukraine Dan bman was in Ukraine just a couple weeks ago people can really endure really a stunning amount of suffering and sacrifice but what they often need to sustain that is a sense that they have a chance of winning but Russia wasn't letting Ukraine get any wins in Ukraine it's been pouring soldiers into
the front line and stacking them behind miles of trenches Mine Fields and fortifications but Russia has committed so many soldiers here that it hasn't left very many to defend its own soil KK is where Russia launches many of its air and artillery strikes from but the few soldiers it's ordered to guard it are mostly conscripts men forced to join the military briefly trained and paid very little the result is the best equipment the best soldiers they're all in Ukraine not on the borders in Russia they're there precisely because Russia didn't think Ukraine would ever dare
attack it Ukraine would need to pull troops to do it which could make parts of its own front line vulnerable and Ukraine's allies have feared that an attack on Russian soil could lead Vladimir Putin to escalate but it was a place that Ukraine thought it could get a win a few weeks ago it began secretly moving thousands of its best troops to the border and Russia didn't notice then on August 6th Ukraine rolled the dice and was soon glad it did Ukraine enforc a storm through the Russian border early on Tuesday at least 1,000 Ukrainian
troops supported by tanks and armored vehicles encountering Little Resistance when Ukrainian troops crossed they quickly overwhelmed the Russian conscripts and took dozens of them prisoner in 2 days it captured about 350 square km and several Villages Russia counterattacked with air strikes but Ukrainian troops kept advancing it disrupted Russian Artillery strikes and has launched its own artillery and drone strikes even deeper into Russia as of August 16th Ukraine reportedly has taken control of over 80 settlements probably more than it expected to I think Ukraine certainly hoped to achieve some of the benefits that they've got from
this but I'm sure they're pleasantly surprised by the poor Russian preparation and response so far frankly Russia was CAU napping it's valuable territory but it's the success of the attack that's giving Ukraine what it really wanted first it's lending a much needed boost of morale in Ukraine and signaling to its allies that it can still launch complex attacks second Ukraine is now forcing Russia to play defense Russia is evacuating these areas and most importantly moving soldiers from the front line to KK which could relieve some of the pressure on Ukraine and third this attack is
undermining Putin's own narrative about the war it's impossible to tell your own people that everything's going great when your territory has been invaded when you have what seems like pretty embarrassing military losses when your conscripts are being captured Ukraine's attack has gone so well that some experts are speculating it could help it negotiate an end to the war since 2022 Putin has said if Ukraine wants peace it needs to give it all this land Ukraine's President Vladimir zilinski has refused but hasn't had much to offer in return back in 2022 most ukrainians supported the stance
but as the war drags on the number of ukrainians that support giving Russia some land in exchange for peace is growing which could be putting pressure on zilinsky to negotiate Now by capturing this Russian territory he could offer it to Russia in exchange for reducing the amount of Ukrainian land it's demanding and maybe strike a deal do you have any idea what this land in Russia would be worth so the idea that this could be traded for much seems farfetched that is my instinct as well is that you know yes it could be trade from
something but probably not that much that said land tends to kind of have some sort of sacred value so it is possible but any talk of ending the war is premature because this battle isn't over there are reports that Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine over the last few days if it were to take more and or inflict heavy casualties on Ukraine by counterattacking in KK it would turn Ukraine's gamble into a costly mistake if you're a sports fan right it's it's like a risky play in football where the coach is brilliant if if
the pass is caught and if it's not you say why did he make that play it's smart if it works all right I just spent the last two days doing this as fast as I could uh today is Saturday so hopefully it's about as up to date as I can make it obviously this is something that's changing a lot every day um but I'm hoping to give you guys a good explanation of what's going on in the big picture and if you're new here this is search party we cover geopolitics as well as sports check
out some of our older videos and please subscribe um other than that we'll resume our normal programming in about a week all right thanks so much
