INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Kyiv's incursion into southwestern Russia's Kursk region will not halt Moscow's advance in
eastern Ukraine and vowed to deal with what he called Ukrainian "bandits" on Russian territory.Ukraine's surprise incursion into the Kursk
6 has so far displaced around 130,000 people, with Kyiv's forces having seized control of dozens of towns and villages near the border in
an attempt to divert forces away from the front line in eastern Ukraine.However, Russian forces have pressed on with their advance in the
partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions."Their calculation was to stop our offensive actions in key parts of the Donbas," Putin told
a group of students in the republic of Tyva
They did not achieve stopping our advance in the Donbas."The Kremlin leader made his remarks during an event marking the first day of the
school year in Russia, as well as ahead of a visit to Mongolia, which borders Tyva."Yes, people are going through difficult experiences,
especially in the Kursk region," Putin said
making advances at a "rate that we have not seen for a long time.""Of course, we have to deal with these bandits that entered the territory
of the Russian Federation, specifically the Kursk region, attempting to destabilize the situation in the border areas," Putin said.
