Putin, in military fatigues, orders swift defeat of Ukrainian forces in Kursk

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin, dressed in military fatigues, ordered top commanders to defeat Ukrainian forces in the western region of Kursk as soon as possible after the United States asked him to consider a 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Ukrainian forces smashed across the Russian border on Aug 6 and grabbed a slice of land inside Russia in a bid to distract Moscow’s forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to gain a potential bargaining chip.

But a lightning Russian advance over the past few days has left Ukraine with a sliver of less than 200 sq km in Kursk, down from 1,300 sq km at the peak of the incursion last summer, according to the Russian military.

“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible timeframe, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Mr Putin told generals in remarks televised late on March 12.

“And of course, we need to think about creating a security zone along the state border.”

The remarks by Mr Putin, dressed in a green camouflage uniform, came as US President Donald Trump said he hoped Moscow would agree to a ceasefire and said that if not then Washington could cause Russia financial pain.

General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff, told Mr Putin that Russian forces had pushed Ukrainian forces out of over 86 per cent of the territory they had once held in Kursk, the equivalent to 1,100 sq km of land.

He said Ukraine’s plans to use Kursk as a bargaining chip in possible future negotiations with Russia had failed and its gambit that its Kursk operation would force Russia to divert troops from its advance in eastern Ukraine had also not worked.

He said Russian forces had retaken 24 settlements and 259 sq km of land from Ukrainian forces in the last five days along with over 400 prisoners.

Russia’s operation to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk has entered its final stage, state news agency Tass reported on March 13, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Ukraine’s top army commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on March 12 that Kyiv’s troops will keep operating in Kursk as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around the town of Sudzha.

The US on March 12 agreed to resume weapons supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.

The Kremlin on March 13 said it was carefully studying the results of that meeting and awaited details from the US. REUTERS