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Facing a Ukrainian Incursion, Putin Directs His Rage at the West
Russian forces are pummeling Ukrainian positions along the front lines, Ukrainian military officials said, as attacks on Russian soil by Ukraine continue.
Kim BarkerEvelina Riabenko and Anton Troianovski
Kim Barker and Evelina Riabenko reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Anton Troianovski from Berlin.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia lashed out at the West over Ukraine’s weeklong incursion into Russian territory, in a tense televised meeting with his top officials on Monday, a sign of how the surprise attack has unsettled the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s move has had two main goals, analysts said: to draw Russian forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to seize territory that could serve as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations.
Mr. Putin, speaking with security chiefs and regional governors at his residence outside Moscow, insisted that the attack would not soften his negotiating position. And even as Moscow scrambled to respond to the incursion into the Kursk region, Russian forces have continued to pummel Ukrainian forces in the east, Ukrainian military officials said on Monday. Mr. Putin’s statements projected confidence in Russia’s military position.
“The West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians,” he said, repeating his frequent depiction of the 30-month war, which he started, as a proxy campaign against Russia by the West. “The enemy will certainly get the response he deserves, and all our goals, without doubt, will be accomplished.”
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With his top general, Valery V. Gerasimov, seated a few feet away, Mr. Putin directed his military to push out Ukraine’s troops and to work with the border guard service to “ensure the reliable protection of the state border” — an acknowledgment that Russia had failed in that regard.
The Kursk region’s acting governor, Aleksei Smirnov, was shown telling Mr. Putin by video link that 28 towns and villages were under Ukrainian control. He said Ukrainian troops had pushed seven miles into Russian territory along a 25-mile front, that 12 civilians had died in the fighting and that 2,000 people were believed to be in Ukrainian-held territory.
His claims could not be independently verified, though the description of the extent of Ukraine’s advance roughly accorded with analysts’ estimates. On social media on Monday, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, claimed control of more than twice as much territory, “about 1,000 square kilometers.”
While Russian civilians have previously been killed by Ukrainian shelling near the border, this is the first time that Ukrainian forces have seized a foothold in Russian territory. Mr. Smirnov said that 121,000 people had fled the border area, and that the authorities were working to evacuate another 59,000.
In interviews, some of the region’s residents said they were shocked at the turn of events, though there had long been speculation that Ukraine might attack.
“No one could have imagined it would come to a takeover,” said Natalia, 31, a manicurist in Zaoleshenka, a settlement near the border. She asked her last name be withheld for her safety.
Russian officials warned that Ukraine’s incursion could expand. In the neighboring Belgorod region, the authorities said they were evacuating the Krasnoyaruzhski border district, and that 11,000 people had already left. And Mr. Putin, in his televised meeting, told the governor of a third border region — Bryansk — that while it appeared “relatively calm” for now, “this doesn’t mean that the same situation will remain tomorrow.”
The incursion into Russia marked a significant shift in the war’s narrative.
Since launching their full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russian troops have captured more than 18 percent of Ukraine. A Ukrainian counteroffensive last year failed; this year, the war has been mainly a slog in the country’s east, with Russian troops grinding forward sometimes a few feet at a time. Ukrainian morale has sunk, and pressure has built on Ukrainian leaders to negotiate a deal.
The incursion into Russian territory, far from the front line, was kept so secret that some Ukrainian soldiers and U.S. officials have said they did not know about it in advance.
There is little sign so far, however, that the shock is driving Russia to redirect frontline forces from eastern Ukraine. Instead of pulling those brigades, Russia appeared to be redeploying lower-level units to the Kursk region, according to a briefing on Sunday by the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank.
The analysis described the Russian force as “hastily assembled” and “ill-prepared” for a coordinated response.
Ukrainian troops along the eastern front line said they were still feeling pressure from the Russians.
“Our guys do not feel any relief,” said Artem Dzhepko, a press officer with Ukraine’s National Police Brigade, which is fighting near the strategically important town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces there were still using as many as 10 aerial bombs a day, he said.
On Facebook, Ukraine’s military reported late Sunday that the Russian Army had tried four times to break through defenses along the front line at Toretsk, near the towns of Zalizne, Druzhba and Niu York. Two attacks were repelled; two were ongoing.
On Monday morning, the attacks near Toretsk continued, said Yevhen Strokan, a senior lieutenant and commander of a combat drone platoon in the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion.
“I don’t feel a decrease in intensity,” Mr. Strokan said. “Everything is being assaulted in the same way.”
The Kursk offensive, he said, might need more time to draw Russian troops away.
Alina Lobzina contributed reporting from London.
Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about national issues. More about Kim Barker
Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The Times. He writes about Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. More about Anton Troianovski
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