WASHINGTON, November 1. /TASS/. The Kiev government’s decision to attack Russia’s borderline Kursk Region has become its “strategic mistake,” said former US Secretary of Defense and the ex-director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Robert Gates.

“And I would just say this about the incursion into Russia, the Kursk incursion: my personal view is that that was a strategic mistake. That’s 30,000 very good Ukrainian troops that I think should have been used to strengthen the front in the Donbass, where they are under huge pressure, and the Russians are very slowly moving forward, taking one village at a time,” he said at an event Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington (declared as an undesirable organization in Russia),

In his opinion, Russia is capable of continuing its special military operation in Ukraine until it decides that its goals are met, and underestimating its ability to carry on “is a huge mistake.”

He also said that the West has “significantly underestimated Russia, and it probably has to do with not reading enough Russian history.”

Ukraine’s massive incursion into the Kursk Region began on August 6. A federal level state of emergency is in effect there. Residents of border areas are being taken to safety. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev has lost more than 27,500 troops and 177 tanks since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk Region. The operation to wipe out the Ukrainian forces continues.