Putin claims that the Ukrainian incursion into Russia has not affected its war aims

2024-09-05 15:09:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Putin claims that the Ukrainian incursion into Russia has not affected its war

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the Ukrainian military's incursion into Russian soil had not affected Moscow's so-called "special military operation," a term the Kremlin uses to describe its war against Ukraine.

Speaking at the East Eurasia Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, Putin claimed that by sending troops to Russia's Kursk region, Ukraine has weakened its forces in the eastern Donbass region, where Russian forces have advanced in recent days.

"The enemy's intention was to anger us, mock us, move our troops from one side to another, and stop our offensive in key directions, first of all in Donbas," Putin said. “Did the enemy succeed in achieving this? No, it didn't achieve anything," he added.

Putin claimed that Russian forces "stabilized the situation and began to slowly push back the enemy from the territories along the border," where Ukrainian forces entered Russian territory in early August.

The move left Ukraine without the means to "stop our offensive" in eastern Ukraine, Putin said.

Kiev claims to have taken control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian land thanks to the surprise incursion last month. This is the first time since World War II that an incursion has taken place on Russian soil. Meanwhile, Russian forces have made major advances in their efforts to capture the strategic city of Pokrovsk in the eastern region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with American television NBC this week that the purpose of the surprise incursion in Kursk was to stockpile Russian troops and territory for future exchanges, underscoring that Ukraine does not need Russian land.

"Our operation is aimed at restoring our territorial integrity. We capture Russian troops to replace them with Ukrainian ones. We tell them, you know, we want our soldiers back in exchange for Russian soldiers. The same applies to territories. We don't need their land," Zelensky said.

In the past, Putin has called the Ukrainian incursion a "provocation" and said that he has given Russia no reason to talk with Kiev.

"What is left to talk with them now", he had said.

But, on September 5, he withdrew from this position saying that "we have never refused to talk".

However, Putin said that the peace talks must take into account Russia's current conditions, that parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops must remain under Moscow's control.

Russia has occupied parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, and in September 2022 it annexed them entirely illegally.

The United Nations continues to recognize these regions as part of Ukraine.

Ukraine has repeatedly demanded that the territories occupied by Russia be returned to it, including the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014./ Rel