Russia claims eastern Donetsk region and three other Ukrainian regions as its own. (Archive)
Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday his main goal in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbass area, saying the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kursk had made that easier.
Putin spoke a day after Russia attacked Ukraine's western region of Lviv with deadly strikes and following recent advances by Moscow's forces in the Donbass.
Since the start of its offensive in February 2022, when it failed to capture the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, Russia has adapted its objectives and focused instead on trying to conquer eastern Ukraine.
Although Ukraine's surprise advance into Russia's Kursk region last month took Russian forces by surprise, Putin stressed that the move had failed to slow Moscow's advance into occupied Ukraine.
“The enemy's goal (in Kursk) was to force us to worry, to hurry, to divert troops and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in Donbass, the liberation of which is our main overriding goal,” Putin said at a forum in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east.
Russia claims the eastern region of Donetsk and three other Ukrainian regions as its own.
Moscow has made strong advances this summer and its troops are now within a dozen kilometres of the town of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in eastern Ukraine from which thousands of people have fled.
Putin said that by sending “fairly well-prepared units” to Kursk, Ukraine had accelerated Moscow's advance in the Donbass.
“The enemy has weakened in key areas, our army has accelerated its offensive operations,” he argued.
'Holy duty'
Putin also said Moscow's military has begun to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region, where Kiev troops have held control of towns and villages for nearly a month.
“Our armed forces have stabilised the situation and have begun to gradually expel (the enemy) from our territory,” Putin said.
These claims could not be verified.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Thursday that Ukraine “maintains defined lines” in the Kursk region.
Russia did not mount a large-scale response in the early days of the incursion, which became the largest on Russian soil since World War II.
Putin has since played down the Ukrainian attack, but has toughened his rhetoric in recent days.
“It is the sacred duty of the Russian military to do everything possible to expel the enemy from this territory and protect our citizens,” he said on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Zelensky told US television channel NBC that Ukraine would hold onto captured territory in the Kursk region.
Zelensky had previously said that one of kyiv's “goals” in Kursk was to show Russians “what is more important to him (Putin): the occupation of Ukrainian territories or the protection of its population.”
kyiv has also said it wants to force Moscow into “fair” negotiations.
Aborted agreement
Although Russian officials have been quick in recent weeks to say that the Kursk incursion makes any talks with Ukraine impossible, Putin appeared to backtrack on those statements.
Russia was willing to negotiate, he said, but on the basis of a failed deal reached in Istanbul in 2022, the details of which were never made public by either side.
But Putin has repeatedly said that Moscow can only negotiate with Ukraine if kyiv hands over four of its regions: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
“Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so,” Putin said on Thursday.
“But not on the basis of ephemeral demands, but on the basis of documents that were agreed upon and effectively signed in Istanbul,” he added.
The Kremlin said Russia and Ukraine were close to reaching an agreement in the spring of 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine.
On Thursday, both sides reported new casualties near the front lines.
In Ukraine's Donetsk region, a 74-year-old man was killed when a Russian shell hit his home in the town of Kostyantynivka, the regional prosecutor's office said, publishing a photo of a destroyed building.
A Ukrainian shelling has killed one man in the Russian border region of Belgorod, the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram.
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