Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to “kick the enemy out” of his country’s territory after it emerged that Ukrainian troops were in control of dozens of Russian villages and large swathes of land a week into Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion.
The scale of the incursion became clearer on Monday when Putin held a meeting with local officials from the border regions as well as some of Russia’s top security, government and law enforcement personnel.
The acting head of the Kursk region, Aleksey Smirnov, told Putin that 28 settlements in his region were now under Ukrainian control, adding that Ukrainian troops had managed to advance some 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) into the territory across a 25-mile (40-kilometer) wide stretch of the border.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Monday that some 386 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of Russian territory were now under Ukrainian control.
Putin said the incursion was an attempt by Ukraine to “improve its negotiation position.”
“But what kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities. What can we even talk about with them?” Putin said.
CNN cannot independently verify Putin’s claims that Ukraine has struck civilians in the incursion. Over the course of the war, Russia has been repeatedly accused of targeting Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure by Kyiv, its Western allies and by international bodies, including the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. Russia has denied the accusations, despite evidence.
Putin went on to tell his security chiefs to expel the Ukrainian forces: “The main task is certainly before the Ministry of Defense: to squeeze out, knock out the enemy from our territories and, together with the border guard service, ensure reliable protection of the state border.”
The Ukrainian advances have sparked a large wave of evacuations from the border regions. Smirnov said 180,000 people had been told to evacuate and that 121,000 have left already.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the neighboring Belgorod region in southern Russia, said people living in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district were being moved to safer places.
“We’re having a disturbing morning – enemy activities on the border of Krasnoyaruzhsky district. I am sure that our military will do everything to cope with this threat. But to protect the life and health of our people, we are beginning to relocate people who live in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district to safer places,” he said in a statement posted on his official Telegram channel.
About 11,000 residents from Krasnoyaruzhsky district were evacuated, the head of the district administration, Andrey Miskov, said later.
The incursion, which is now affecting two Russian regions, is seen as something of a game-changer in the conflict. The Ukrainian military has in the past regularly attacked targets inside the Belgorod region with drones and missiles, but until last week Kyiv had not launched any official ground incursions across the border in the two and half years since the start of the full-scale war.
The extent of the operation remains unclear.
An influential Russian military blog Rybar said on Monday that “apparently the (Armed Forces of Ukraine) is not shying away from plans to stretch our defensive formations, create the maximum number of points of tension, and attempt to break through in the east to cut Belgorod off from the north.”
