By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Ukraine's biggest attack on Russian territory since the start of the war was aimed at improving Kyiv's negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks and at slowing the advance of Russian forces.
Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border last Tuesday and swept across some western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that laid bare the weakness of Russian border defences in the area.
Putin, in his most detailed public remarks on the incursion to date, said Ukraine "with the help of its Western masters" was trying to improve its position ahead of possible talks.
He questioned what negotiations there could be with an enemy he accused of firing indiscriminately at Russian civilians and nuclear facilities.
"The main task, of course, is for the defence ministry to squeeze out, to knock out the enemy from our territories," Putin said, adding that Russian forces were accelerating their advance along the rest of the 1,000-km (620-mile) main front.
"The enemy will certainly receive a worthy response," he said.
He also said he expected further Ukrainian attempts to destabilise Russia's western border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war was now coming back to Russia. He said that Ukraine's cross-border assault was a matter of security for Ukraine and that Kyiv had captured areas from where Russia launched strikes.
His top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Ukraine controlled 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) of Russian territory, far larger than the figures given by Russian officials.
The acting governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said Ukraine controlled 28 settlements in the region, and the incursion was about 12 km deep and 40 km wide. Putin told Smirnov that the military would report on such things and advised him to focus on updating on the socio-economic situation.
In Kursk region alone, 121,000 people had already left or been evacuated and another 59,000 were in the process of being evacuated. In Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Kursk, thousands of civilians were also evacuated.
Ukrainian forces in Kursk were trying to encircle Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flows into Ukraine, while major battles were under way near Korenevo, about 22 km (14 miles) from the border, and Martynovka.
One Russian source with knowledge of official thinking said that by attacking Russia, Ukraine was emboldening Russian hardliners who argue that any ceasefire talks were a waste of time and that Russia should push much further into Ukraine.
CRUCIAL JUNCTURE
Russian officials say Ukraine is trying to show its Western backers that it can still muster major military operations just as pressure mounts on both Kyiv and Moscow to agree to talk about halting the war.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and now controls 18% of Ukrainian territory. Until the surprise attack on Russia, Ukraine had been losing territory to Russian forces despite hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. and European support aimed at stopping and even reversing the Russian advance.
After more than two years of the most intense land war in Europe since World War Two, both Moscow and Kyiv have indicated that they are pondering possible talks, though in public both are still far apart on what a ceasefire might look like.
Both also have an eye on the U.S. presidential election in November. Kyiv is concerned that U.S. support could weaken if Republican Donald Trump wins.
Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield.
Reuters reported in February that Putin's suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the United States. In June, Putin suggested possible terms including demands that Kyiv drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from four provinces claimed by Moscow.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, after talks with China, said last month that Kyiv was prepared for talks on the conflict with Russia provided Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity were fully respected.
Kyiv says it is the victim of an imperial-style land grab by Putin and says it must gain control over all the land it has lost to Russia. The West says it cannot allow Putin to win.
INTENSE FIGHTING
The Ukrainian incursion is embarrassing for Putin's top military brass, which has repeatedly been criticised inside Russia by nationalists for its prosecution of the war.
Former Ukrainian defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk told Reuters that the operation looked to be aimed at distracting Russian forces and its leadership from the eastern fronts.
To counter it, Russia has been forced to mobilise reserves and declare an anti-terrorist lockdown in Kursk and two other regions, Bryansk and Belgorod.
Putin said on Monday that, despite the attack, "our armed forces are moving forward along the entire line of contact".
The Russian defence ministry said later that Russian forces had taken control of the settlement of Lysychne in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield claims.
Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's security council, said last week that Russia had taken 420 sq km of territory from Ukrainian forces since June 14.
Since the Aug. 6 border incursion into Kursk, the Russian rouble has weakened, losing 6% of its value against the U.S. dollar. Russia's Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) said it would send 39.6 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday.