Kremlin forces have retaken the largest town in the Kursk region — the only Russian territory occupied by Ukrainian troops — and expect to soon roll back all of Kyiv's gains in the area, the Russian defense ministry said Thursday.
With the world waiting to see if Vladimir Putin accepts ceasefire plans suggested by the United States and Ukraine, the Russian president signaled the opposite if anything.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
Dressed in military fatigues, Putin visited soldiers in Kursk. With Russian forces gaining momentum on the battlefield, Putin did not sound like a man eager for peace.
“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible timeframe, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Putin said. He also suggested creating “a security zone” on the border.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
Shortly afterwards, the Russian ministry of defense said it had recaptured the town of Sudzha, sharing a video on Telegram of what it said was Russian troops inspecting bombed out buildings in the area.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday in a media briefing that “there is no doubt that the Kursk region will be liberated soon enough.”
In his remarks, Putin did not mention the ceasefire outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week. And there has so far been no evidence that he is prepared to soften his maximalist demands for ending the war: Ukraine withdrawing from its regions partly occupied by Russia, promising never to join NATO, and protecting Russian culture and language.
U.S. & World
He is expected to give a press conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally, later Thursday.
American and Russian officials have this week been talking behind the scenes. And President Donald Trump has dispatched his envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia, while threatening sanctions for the Kremlin.
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”
Despite this threat, Trump has asked few concessions from the Kremlin, while openly suggesting Ukraine will have to agree to many of Putin’s demands.
The White House said Witkoff would be in Russia this week but declined to say when. Russia’s state-run TASS news agency cited the Flightradar tracking website saying that Witkoff’s plane had crossed into Russian airspace Thursday morning.
“Indeed, the negotiators are flying in, indeed, contacts are scheduled." Peskov told reporters Thursday.
"Let’s not get ahead of ourselves," he added. "We’ll tell you later.”
The suggestion from talks in Saudi Arabia of an interim 30-day ceasefire has been welcomed by European leaders. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned them in his nightly address Wednesday about Russia's history of breaking numerous truces.
“The key is our partners’ ability to ensure that Russia is ready not to deceive, but to truly end the war,” he said.
Ukrainian officials and citizens say they want peace, but only alongside security guarantees that ensure the Kremlin does not attack again.
“I think 99% of Ukrainians wants the war to end in a fair way,” Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, told NBC News on Wednesday. “We want some guarantees that it will not come back in a couple of years.”
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow contributed.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
