“From this moment, the special military operation should become openly exterritorial in nature,” Dmitry Medvedev, who serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, argued in a post on Thursday. Medvedev has long been a proponent of finishing off Ukraine in the war as a way to quickly bring it to an end and achieve Russia’s goals.

Russia: Zelensky Is A “War Criminal” And A “Legitimate Military Target”

Medvedev, a Ukraine conflict hardliner, said the “terrorist operation” in Kursk Region should “remove any taboo” on declaring publicly that the Russian forces “will only stop when we consider it acceptable and beneficial for us.”

According to a report by RT, the EU has endorsed the Ukrainian operation in Kursk Region. European Commission spokesman Peter Stano has said that the country has the right to defend itself, “including by striking the aggressor on its territory.”

Kiev and its Western backers claim that Russia started the hostilities in February 2022 out of a desire for imperial conquest. Moscow has denied that, saying it sought to stop continued Ukrainian attacks on the ethnic Russian breakaway republics in the east and preempt a Ukrainian military offensive in Donbas.

So far, Russia has held off on retaliation against the Western backers of Ukraine, such as the United States and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in favor of keeping the war from exploding further. Should Medvedev get his way and more conflict arise, this could signal Moscow to act even more boldly and quickly become more than a proxy war.

Stop The Denial: Ukraine Is A Proxy War That Will Lead To Wider World War

The US has implied that it had not been made aware of Kiev’s plans, with White House national security spokesman John Kirby telling the press: “We intend to reach out to our Ukrainian partners to get a fuller picture of what happened.”