Ukraine failed to slow Russia’s Donbas advance with Kursk incursion: Putin
Al Jazeera
The Russian president claims Kyiv’s bid had an opposite effect, allowing Moscow to accelerate its offensive in eastern Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine’s weeks-long ongoing incursion in Russia’s Kursk region is aimed at slowing the Russian advance in the Ukrainian region of Donbas, but it has failed.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok, Putin said on Thursday that capturing Donbas was Moscow’s main aim in the full-scale war launched in 2022 and Ukraine’s move against Russian border regions had simply weakened its forces along the rest of the front.
“The aim of the enemy was to make us worry … and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our primary objective,” he said.
“Did it work? No.”
Russian forces, which control 18 percent of Ukraine, have been advancing in eastern Ukraine since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counteroffensive to achieve a significant breakthrough.
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