The Russian leader promised to treat captured forces as “terrorists.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to defeat Ukrainian forces occupying its Kursk border region as soon as possible, shortly before an American delegation heads to Moscow to negotiate a ceasefire.
In August 2024, Ukraine attacked and captured a small part of Kursk Oblast, a Russian region on their mutual border, dealing a major blow to the Kremlin and boosting domestic morale.
The foothold, comprising some 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory at its largest, was expected to be used as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations with the Kremlin.
But the Ukrainians have struggled to hold onto it amid a Russian counterattack that has seen villages and settlements slowly come back under the control of Moscow. Russia this week claimed to have recaptured the majority of the seized territory, including the town of Sudzha, Kyiv’s biggest prize, along with hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers.
Putin — dressed unusually in military camouflage — visited a command post in Kursk on Tuesday, the first time he had set foot in the region since it was occupied by Ukraine. He urged his forces to push out the Ukrainians “in the shortest possible time,” according to Russian state media.
“I am counting on the fact that all the combat tasks facing our units will be fulfilled, and the territory of the Kursk region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy,” he said.
Putin added that captured Ukrainian fighters will be “treated as terrorists, in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.”
American envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to Moscow this week to present the Kremlin with a ceasefire proposal — considered a first step toward a lasting end to the conflict — and to hash out the terms of a peace deal. Ukraine agreed to the terms of the proposal on Tuesday.
If Russia does not agree to temporarily halt hostilities, U.S. President Donald Trump has promised swift reprisals in the form of “devastating” financial penalties.
