kyiv, Ukraine.- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Ukrainian military’s incursion into the Kursk region — which has sent more than 100,000 civilians fleeing and embarrassed the Kremlin — is an attempt by kyiv to halt Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.
Russian forces are still struggling to respond to a surprise Ukrainian attack after nearly a week of intense fighting, but Putin insisted his military will prevail.
At a meeting with senior security and defense officials, the Russian president said the attack that began on August 6 appeared to reflect kyiv’s attempt to gain a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the war.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian military forces are operating inside the Kursk region. In a post on Telegram, he praised the country’s soldiers and commanders “for their steadfastness and decisive actions.”
He did not give further details. He also suggested that Ukraine would offer humanitarian assistance in the region.
In a video posted on Zelenskyy’s Telegram, the Ukrainian army commander-in-chief briefed the president on the situation on the front line and said Ukraine controls 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory — the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the incursion’s achievements.
“The troops are fulfilling their tasks. The fighting is actually continuing along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” said General Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Putin said Ukraine hoped to cause public unrest in Russia with the attack, adding that it has failed to achieve that goal, saying the number of volunteers joining the Russian military has increased due to the assault. “It is clear that the enemy will continue to try to destabilize the situation in the border area in order to try to destabilize the internal political situation in our country,” Putin said. Russia’s main task is “to expel the enemy from our territories and, together with the border service, to ensure reliable coverage of the state border,” he added.
Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin that Ukrainian forces had advanced 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the Kursk region along a 40-kilometer (25-mile) front and now control 28 Russian settlements.
Smirnov said 12 civilians had been killed and 121 others, including 10 children, had been wounded in the operation. Some 121,000 people had been evacuated or had left areas affected by the fighting, he added. The total number of planned evacuations was 180,000.
The governor of the Belgorod region, adjacent to Kursk, also announced the evacuation of people from a district near the border with Ukraine, describing Monday morning as “alarming” but giving no details.
The Ukrainian operation is being conducted under strict secrecy and its objectives, especially whether Kiev forces intend to hold territory or are conducting lightning raids, remain unclear. The stunning maneuver that took Kremlin forces by surprise counters Russia’s tireless effort in recent months to break through Ukrainian defenses at selected points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has already suffered incursions on its territory during the nearly two-and-a-half-year war, but the incursion in the Kursk region is the largest attack on its territory since World War II, marking a turning point in the hostilities.
The advance has dealt a blow to Putin’s efforts to make it appear that life in Russia has remained largely untouched by the war. State propaganda has sought to downplay the attack, emphasizing the authorities’ efforts to help residents in the region and trying to distract from the military’s failure to prepare for the attack and repel it quickly.
Kursk residents recorded videos lamenting that they had to flee the border area, leaving their belongings behind, and calling on Putin for help. But state media kept any expressions of discontent under wraps.
Retired General Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, criticised the military for failing to adequately protect the border. “Unfortunately, the group of forces protecting the border did not have its own intelligence assets,” he said via a messaging app.
The fighting inside Russia has revived questions about whether Ukraine is using weapons supplied by NATO members. Some Western countries have been reluctant to allow kyiv to use its military aid to attack Russian soil, fearing that this would fuel an escalation that could drag Russia and NATO into war.
Ukraine has already used US weapons to attack inside Russia.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Monday that weapons provided by his country “cannot be used to attack Russia on its territory.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that reinforcements sent to the area, backed by air power and artillery, had repelled seven attacks by Ukrainian units near Martynovka, Borki and Korenevo in the previous 24 hours.
The ministry said Russian forces also blocked an attempt by Ukrainian mobile groups to advance into Russian territory near Kauchuk.
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