Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (5) that Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region had failed to slow Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Kiev’s defenses along the front line, in a push for Moscow.
Putin, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, said Russian forces were now gradually pushing Ukrainian soldiers out of Kursk, where on August 6 Ukraine launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War II.
Ukraine has weakened its defenses elsewhere and allowed Russia to accelerate its push into eastern Donbass, he said, reiterating that Moscow’s main goal is to take full control of Donbass.
“The enemy’s goal was to make us nervous and worried, to transfer troops from one sector to another and to prevent our offensive in key areas, primarily in Donbass,” Putin said. “Did it work? No.”
Putin, who ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in what he called a special military operation, declared that it is now “the sacred duty of the Armed Forces” to expel Ukrainian forces from Kursk and defend Russian citizens.
Ukraine’s supreme commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said one of the goals of the Kursk operation was to divert Russian forces from other areas, mainly in eastern Ukraine near the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
While the Kursk incursion was an embarrassment for Putin and the military brass, Russian officials are now portraying it as one of Kiev’s biggest tactical mistakes of the war, saying it tied up thousands of troops for few real gains.
“By transferring quite large and well-trained units to these areas bordering us, the enemy has weakened in important areas and our troops have accelerated offensive operations,” Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev planned to hold territory at Kursk and that the operation, which he said was part of a not fully disclosed victory plan, had taken the war to the Russians.
Putin said Russian forces were taking chunks of territory in eastern Ukraine faster than ever before – and that recruitment rates were rising in Russia.
This content was originally published in Putin says Ukrainian invasion of Kursk did not slow Russia’s advance on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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