On Monday, September 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region will not stop Moscow’s progress in Eastern Ukraine. He promised to deal with the Ukrainian “bandits” in the region.
Ukraine’s unexpected attack on August 6 has displaced about 130,000 people and allowed Kyiv to hold parts of the Kursk border region.
Moscow had planned to withdraw troops from Eastern Ukraine to defend Kursk, but it has kept its most experienced soldiers focused on the Eastern Ukraine offensive. Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to make gains in Kursk.
Putin told school children in Siberia, “Their plan was to halt our offensive actions in key parts of the Donbas. The result is known… They did not stop our advance in the Donbas.”
He added, “The result is clear. Yes, people are going through difficult times, especially in the Kursk region. But the main goal of the enemy—to stop our advance in Donbas—was not achieved.”
Putin noted that Moscow is making progress at a “rate that we have not seen for a long time.”
Kyiv has stated that one of its goals in entering Kursk was to stretch the Russian Army and force it to withdraw reserves from Eastern Ukraine.
Putin said, “We have to deal with these bandits who entered the territory of the Russian Federation, specifically the Kursk region, trying to destabilize the situation in the border areas.”
This language marks a shift from Putin’s earlier descriptions of the incursion as simply “the situation that has evolved.”
Previously, Putin had threatened nuclear war if Russian territory were invaded. Ukraine’s occupation of Russian land is the first time a foreign army has entered Russia since WWII.
