Russian President Putin says Ukraine is trying to gain more leverage

President Putin: Ukraine is trying to gain more leverage for negotiations through the offensive in Kursk.

According to news reports on August 12, 2024, Russian President Putin held a meeting on the security situation in Kursk Oblast local time on the 12th. He said that Ukraine is trying to gain more leverage for negotiations by launching an offensive in Kursk Oblast. He also said that despite Ukraine's provocative actions in Kursk Oblast, the Russian army is still advancing orderly on the front line.

Since August 6, 2024, intense exchanges of fire have occurred between Russia and Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia. As of August 12, the conflict between the two sides has entered its sixth day. The acting governor of the Kursk Oblast, Smirnov, reported to Putin on the 12th that currently 28 settlements in Kursk Oblast are controlled by the Ukrainian army, and a total of 121,000 people have been evacuated from the border area. The Ukrainian army's attack has killed 12 civilians and injured 121 in the oblast. On the same day, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Syrskyi, said that currently the Ukrainian Armed Forces control about 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory. All units are carrying out related tasks, the battle is still ongoing, and the situation on the entire front line is under the control of the Ukrainian army.

Regarding the reason for Ukraine's offensive in Kursk, Zhang Hong, a researcher at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that since this year, the Russian army has continuously launched strong attacks on the frontal battlefield and broken through many Ukrainian defense lines. This Ukrainian operation is to force the Russian army to withdraw its troops. Due to the huge gap in the conditions and positions of the Russia-Ukraine peace talks now, Ukraine hopes to occupy Russian territory through the military operation in Kursk, thereby gaining more initiative in future peace talks.

In addition, according to a report on August 12 on the website of the German weekly Der Spiegel's exclusive interview with Gustav Gressel, an expert on Eastern Europe, security policy and military strategy at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Gressel believes that the Ukrainian leadership hopes to force Russia to negotiate and needs negotiating leverage for this. They now hope to obtain leverage by quickly occupying Russian territory at a smaller cost.