‘The main task is to drive out the enemy’

Putin says Ukraine launched Kursk attack to slow Russia’s progress and improve negotiating position in televised meeting

As Ukraine’s surprise cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region carried into its seventh day on Monday, Vladimir Putin convened a televised meeting with top security officials to discuss the unprecedented situation. Claiming that Ukraine launched the foray to improve its negotiating position and to slow Russia’s advance on Ukrainian territory, the Russian president argued that the incursion has in fact made peace talks less likely and that Moscow’s battlefield progress has only accelerated. At the same time, acting Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov called the situation in his region “difficult” and said Ukraine currently controls 28 settlements. Meduza shares key takeaways from the event.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a televised meeting with top security officials on Monday to discuss Ukraine’s ongoing cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Participants included Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu, and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov.

In the meeting, Putin said that the Russian Defense Ministry’s main task at the moment is to “drive out and beat back the enemy from our territories and ensure reliable border protection.” Downplaying the military significance of the Ukrainian offensive, he called for the FSB and the Russian National Guard to continue its “counterterrorism operation” and bolster border security in the region.

“An assessment of the ongoing situation must certainly be given. And it will. But the priority right now is to address the current challenges we’re facing based on forecasts of how the situation might develop,” Putin told the officials.

The president asserted that Kyiv and its “Western handlers” launched the offensive on Russian territory in part to “improve their negotiating position in the future.” “But what negotiations can there be with people who indiscriminately attack civilians and civilian infrastructure or try to threaten nuclear energy facilities?” he said.

Putin went on to claim that the main goal of Ukraine’s new offensive is to stop Russia’s advance in Ukraine. “[But] what’s happening on the front line? The pace of offensive operations by the Russian army, volunteers, and veterans has not only not slowed but has increased by 50 percent,” he said.

Putin also claimed that the incursion has had a unifying effect on Russian society:

Another one of the enemy’s goals is to sow discord and division in our society, to intimidate people, and to destroy the unity of Russian society. But here, too, the response from citizens has been unanimous support for everyone who’s in trouble. It’s the support for the army and an increase in the number of people who want to join our men, the fighters who are defending Russia.

Acting Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov said in the meeting that the Ukrainian army currently controls 28 settlements in the Kursk region and characterized the situation on the ground as “difficult.” He said Ukrainian troops have pushed 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into Russian territory along a 40-kilometer (25-mile) front.

According to Smirnov, at least 12 civilians have been killed since the operation began and at least 121 have been injured. He said that about 121,000 people have been evacuated from the border regions and that about 180,000 people are subject to evacuation orders in total. Additionally, he reported, around 2,000 civilians are in areas controlled by Ukrainian forces and are currently considered missing.

The Ukrainian OSINT service DeepState, which works with the country’s Defense Ministry, has reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) control approximately 44 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region. Meduza’s analysts estimate that Ukraine controls over 30 Russian settlements. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian military’s commander-in-chief, has reported that Ukraine currently controls about 1,000 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Russian territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on Monday evening.

Cover photo: Alexey Babushkin / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / AP / Scanpix / LETA