Putin says Ukraine border incursion will not stop Russian advance

Copyright AFP Petter BERNTSEN

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that his army was rapidly advancing in east Ukraine, citing this as proof that Kyiv’s cross-border incursion into the Kursk region was failing. 

His comments came hours after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, wounding at least three people in Kyiv and damaging a mosque moments before the new school year began. 

“People are experiencing and undergoing severe hardship, especially in the Kursk region,” Putin told school children at a televised event in Siberia.

“But the enemy did not achieve the main task that they set themselves: to stop our offensive in the Donbas … We have not had such a pace of offensive in the Donbas for a long time,” he said.

The Donbas refers to a large area of east Ukraine covering the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which Moscow claims as its own and where its forces claim to be advancing.

Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk region on 6 August, sending thousands of troops across the border in the biggest incursion on Russian soil since World War II.

Kyiv said the aim of the offensive was to draw Russian troops away from east Ukraine and stretch Moscow’s forces.

Some 130,000 people have fled the Russian border region since the start of the fighting, which has killed at least a dozen people and injured more than 100 others, according to Russian state media.

“We have to, of course, deal with these bandits that entered the territory of the Russian Federation, specifically the Kursk region, attempting to destabilise the situation in the border areas,” Putin said at the meeting.

The Russian leader’s language marks a change from his previous statements on the incursion, which he had described as an evolving “situation”.

– ‘Destruction campaign’ –

Russia has in recent weeks claimed to have captured a string of small villages and settlements in east Ukraine, inching towards the city of Pokrovsk.  

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.  

Ukraine has rushed to evacuate families from Pokrovsk, which was home to around 60,000 people before Moscow launched its 2022 attack.   

The Russian defence ministry said in a briefing Monday that it had captured the village of “Skuchne” in the eastern Donetsk region, without providing further details.

Russia fired more than two dozen missiles and over 20 drones at Ukraine overnight, moments before the school year was set to begin, according to Kyiv.

Loud explosions were heard in the capital around 5:30 am (0230 GMT), AFP journalists in Kyiv said.

“Overnight, Russia fired a total of 35 missiles, including ballistic ones, and 23 drones at Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He said a mosque in the capital had been “severely damaged” and condemned Russia for its “destruction campaign against the Ukrainian people”.

Ukraine shot down nine ballistic missiles, 13 cruise missiles and 20 attack drones, the airforce said.