Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Kursk since Ukraine’s incursion into the border region in August last year. During his trip, the Russian leader ordered his troops to defeat Ukrainian forces in the region “as soon as possible”. Interestingly, the visit took place shortly before an American delegation headed to Moscow to negotiate a ceasefire deal, which would lead to the end of the war.
In August 2024, the Ukrainian troops made a surprise incursion into the Kursk Oblast and captured a small part of the Russian border region. The Ukrainians were expecting to use this territory as a bargaining chip when negotiating any future peace deal with Russia.
Putin, dressed unusually in military camouflage, paid a visit to the Kursk command post on Thursday. While addressing the Russian troops, he urged them to push out Ukrainians from the region in the “shortest possible time,” Politico reported. “I am counting on the fact that all the combat tasks facing our units will be fulfilled, and the territory of the Kursk region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy,” he said.
Putin also made it clear that the captured Ukrainian fighters will be “treated as terrorists, in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.” In recent months, Ukrainians have struggled to hold on to the region amid a lethal Russian counterattack. This week, Russia claimed to have recaptured the majority of the seized territory, including the town of Sudzha, Kyiv’s biggest prize, along with hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers.
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/putin-visits-kursk-a-first-since-ukraine-attacked-amid-ceasefire-talks-13871134.html.
